The Hawk's Dagger
by Starling Strider
Summary: Kendra "Dagger" Barton is Clint Barton's little sister. They're thicker than thieves and they'd do anything for each other. Kendra can't imagine life without her big brother but what happens when an madman from space takes her brother from her? How will Kendra deal with the loss while one horrid thought runs through her head. What if she never sees her brother again? Summary sucks.
1. The Tesseract is Acting Up

Kendra bounced around the room, listening to the music on her Ipod. Okay so maybe it wasn't the best moment to be dancing to music, the Tesseract was acting pretty funky, but it helped her relax. Upbeat, make you get off your feet, dance around subconsciously music was her way of dealing with stress. It's kind of hard to get worked up about something when you've got I'm Bringing Sexy Back playing on full blast.

It had just been another uneventful day in the S.H.I.E.L.D base when the Tesseract started acting up. It had been...well it had been weird. Doctor Selvig was trying very hard to fix it but he wasn't really doing much good. Fury had been called in and everyone was basically just waiting for the one eyed man though they rushed about, trying to do what they could while he wasn't there. Kendra looked up at the spot where her brother was perched and waved cheerfully at him. He waved back though he wasn't nearly as cheerful as her. He took situations a little more seriously than her, especially when he was bored out of his mind. He'd told her just an hour or two ago he would love it if something happened. Kendra smiled a little, her brother had definitely gotten his wish. She gave him a pointed look that of course he didn't miss. He rolled his eyes, reading her thoughts easily, and Kendra smiled.

Fury walked into the room, looking more than a little irritated, and Kendra decided it would be a good idea not to be playing her music with him there. Fury was nice enough to her, he'd known her since she was a little kid, but that didn't mean he wouldn't yell at her. In this mood he might even send her on one of those super boring missions where all you got to do is sit around and gather very little intel. Kendra swiftly shoved her Ipod into her pocket and ran over to where she'd rather meanly abandoned her knife collection.

"Did you miss me my babies?" Kendra asked the weapons sweetly. One of the scientists gave her a slightly scared look but no one commented on her weirdness. It was common knowledge that Little Barton, one of Kendra's many nicknames, had an obsession with sharp things. Especially her knives and throwing stars. Kendra very lovingly reattached all her weapons to her body. Her knives were soon back in their sheaths, one attached to her thigh and the other to her arm. Her specially made darts were in a bag at her hip while her throwing stars were in their own little pack on her other hip. Another knife was tucked away in her boot while a few throwing knives were in hidden compartments in her sleeves. "I'm so sorry sweeties. I won't leave you alone for so long ever again." Kendra told her weapons in a loving voice.

"Agent Dagger." Fury said, catching Kendra's attention. Of course her last name wasn't actually Dagger, it was Barton, but that was just another one of her nicknames. It was what they called her when both Bartons were being mentioned or were in the same room together. It helped people and the siblings figure out who the person talking was referring to. "Retrieve Agent Barton." Fury ordered her.

Kendra saluted playfully. "Yes sir!" She said, grinning. Fury just stared at her, telling her with his eyes to get a move on. Kendra frowned a little, thinking Fury could lighten up a little even in this serious situation, before turning to face her brother's 'nest.' "Hey bro! Get down here, Director Fury wants you!" Kendra shouted up at him.

Clint smiled slightly. Any other agent would have climbed all the way up to his perch and gotten him but not Kendra. No, his little sister would do whatever produced the quickest result and in the most charmingly weird way she could. Clint immediately listened to her and made his way down to her and Director Fury. She was tapping the handle of the knife on her thigh, a small sign of anticipation and possessiveness. She wanted to use her knives. Clint very nearly smiled, her knives were like his bow was to him.

Fury started walking so of course the two Bartons followed. "I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things." Fury said, sounding somewhat disapproving. He didn't look over at Clint as he spoke, something all S.H.I.E.L.D agents did when talking about matters of importance. Kendra was the only one who would always look at faces when she spoke. It was her thing, reading people even when she didn't need to.

Kendra smiled, predicting her brother's answer before he said it. "Well I see better from a distance." Clint answered, shooting his sister a slight smile. She returns it but she adds a birdlike cock of the head to it. Clint gets her silent joke, she was the first to start comparing him to a bird, and he gives her a look that tells her he'll be getting back at her for that later. Kendra just smiles, her cheerful attitude brightening the situation slightly.

"Well have you seen anything that might set this thing off?" Fury asked, pointing at the Tesseract.

The three of them approached the little blue cube and Kendra couldn't help staring at it. Such a small thing and yet it was supposed to be the...how did Fury put it? "The key to unlimited sustainable energy" or something like that. Kendra didn't like the Tesseract, it gave her an uneasy feeling, so she didn't often pay attention to anything said about it. Her job was to back up her brother and take out threats, not pay attention to some creepy cube. Clint couldn't agree more with her, at least on the uneasy part. He paid attention to the cube because it did kind of interest him but he could never shake that feeling in his stomach that told him to get him and his sister a million miles away from the cube.

"No one's come or gone. And Selvig's clean. No contacts, no IMs." Clint said, looking over at the doctor as he did.

Fury looked over at Kendra in confirmation. She always Clint's shadow, double checking all that he did while doing her own little investigations. "He's right sir. I've been monitoring Selvig closely, nothing slipped past me. The doctor's clear." Kendra answered readily. She liked Doctor Selvig, he was a funny man when he wanted to be. Chatty too which made her job of watching him and monitoring the Tesseract so much more entertaining.

Clint nodded, staring at the Tesseract as he did. "No one in this room did anything to the Tesseract sir." He said, crossing his arms over his chest. Kendra watched the scientists behind her looking in worry at a screen. "If there was any tampering it wasn't at this end." Clint said somewhat thoughtfully.

Fury looked over at Clint, slightly confused but mostly surprised. "At this end?" He repeated questioningly. Clint looked over at him in slight confusion, he hadn't exactly realized he said that out loud. Kendra nudged him slightly, telling him to speak.

"Yeah. The cube is a doorway to the other end of space right?" Clint said, eyeing the Tesseract. The cube sparked, sending out small bolts of blue energy, and the two Bartons stared at it. Both were feeling that horrible sensation of oncoming trouble that they always felt before something bad happened. Clint looked back at Fury, forcing his eyes off the cube. "Doors open from both sides." He said, shrugging a little.

Suddenly the room started shaking ever so slightly, a dull thunder sounding off as it did. The Tesseract pulsed, sending out a burst of blue energy that made the three members of S.H.I.E.L.D take a cautious step back. Clint grabbed his sister and Director Fury and pulled them back away from the Tesseract as it continued to shoot out bolts. The ground shook slightly beneath Kendra's feet and she clutched her brother's arm, wanting him close by if something happened. They all watched as the Tesseract acted up and waited to see what exactly it would do.

Even after years of training Kendra could still be surprised by big things. Like the sudden burst of blue energy that shot out of the Tesseract and focused on the platform across it. She watched in confused and slightly afraid interest as what could only be described as a portal opened up. There was blackness inside the portal. Blackness and...stars. Kendra stared at the portal to space in wonder, her grip on her brother slackening a little as she stood captivated by the anomaly in front of her.

The portal pulsed, sending out a blinding wave of bright blue light. Clint instinctively stepped out in front of his sister, placing his back to the portal. Just as instinctively, Kendra latched onto her brother and buried her eyes in his shoulder. No one saw them, they all blocked their eyes when the blast nearly hit them and the siblings broke apart before anyone decided to look back up. Clint returned to his position beside his sister, exchanging a look with her as he did. The look told her to stay close, to not get injured. Kendra nodded and gave him a pointed look, silently telling him to do the same. Clint nodded and they focused their attention on where the portal once was. When they saw a man kneeling on the platform looking like he was on fire their expressions turned to ones of confused guardedness.

S.H.I.E.L.D agents with big guns started stalking forward, pointing their weapons at the man as they did. The man slowly stood, looking at the ground as he did. There was something in his hand that looked distinctly like a scepter but with a sharp point. Kendra instantly thought it could be used as a weapon if the need arose, something years of S.H.I.E.L.D training taught her. Anything can be a weapon. Anything can kill you. The man slowly looked up and Kendra glared the grin on his face. It was pleased, dark, and sickening. She's seen that smile on a lot of men she'd taken out in her years at S.H.I.E.L.D. Kendra had a horrible feeling this man wasn't like the other men she'd killed though. His eyes pinpointed Selvig, then her brother, then Fury slowly as if he knew who they were. When his eyes landed briefly on Kendra she forced herself not to display the usual jaded smile she wore in these situations. Instead she forced herself to seem small, pathetic, insignificant. Clint wanted her to go uninjured and the best way for that to happen was by her pretending to not be a threat. Hostiles tended not to attack the ones they thought weren't going to be a challenge, preferring to go after the big threats first. If the man believed her lie then she would have plenty of time to think up an attack plan.

"Sir!" Fury bellowed out, pulling Kendra from her thoughts. The man on the platform turned his attention away from the slowly advancing agents to the Director. "Please, put down the spear!" Fury requested though it sounded exactly like an order. Kendra bit her tongue, vowing to mention later that the thing the man was holding was definitely not a spear.

The man stared at Fury for a second then looked down at his scepter. He slowly brought it up near his face, as if he had never seen it before and was marveling at it. Kendra noticed the gem in it was glowing very similarly to the Tesseract. The man looked back up at Fury and suddenly pointed the scepter at their leader, the gem glowing almost blindingly. A bolt of blue energy blasted towards them and Clint turned to his sister without thought, ready to push her out of the way. Kendra shoved him though, turning him before he could react. Clint shoved Fury away, falling as he did, and Kendra dived to her left, placing herself out of danger for a moment. She tucked and rolled to her feet, grabbing her knives as she did. Gunfire filled the air as the agents reacted to the attack on Director Fury. Kendra spun around to face the man and saw him throw knives straight at two of the agents, killing them both. She froze for a second in shock, he was just as good as her with throwing knives. Her shock disappeared quickly though as she threw two of her own knives at the man. He looked over at her and slashed with his scepter. Kendra saw her knives bounce off of some sort of invisible barrier around the man and come hurtling back at her. She dropped to the ground instantly, just barely missing getting killed by her own weapons.

Clint saw his sister drop and he saw her knives sink deep into the wall behind her. She would have been dead if she had paused a second longer. Clint let out an enraged shout and pulled his gun out of the holster on his thigh. He started firing and the people behind him followed suit. Clint watched as the bullets seemed to bounce off the man and hit the walls around them. Clint cursed, lowering his gun when he realized that close range fighting was going to have to be the way to go with this guy. When the man blasted another bolt of blue his way he rolled out of the way, avoiding getting hit by just a second.

All sounds of fighting ended but Kendra didn't look up from the large but not particularly deep cut she'd gotten across her stomach. She'd scratched herself on a stray piece of technology on the ground and it made her mad. Clint had told her not to get injured and what had she gone and done? That's right, get injured. Kendra cursed and finally looked up, taking in the damage the man had done. She barely noticed it though when her eyes landed on the man tightly gripping her brother, the tip of his scepter placed where her brother's heart beat beneath.

"Clint!" Kendra shouted, instantly leaping to her feet. The movement made blood pour out of her stomach and she stumbled back a little, placing a hand over the injury and pressing down to stop the bleeding. It hurt, it hurt like hell, but she did it anyways. She took a step towards her brother but she stopped suddenly when she saw his eyes. Their usual grey, the grey that she shares with him, is gone. In its place is a blue that chills Kendra to the bone. His eyes are the color of the Tesseract. She watched him put his gun away and stare at the man before him as obediently as he ever stared at Fury. Kendra stared at her brother in horror, her hands shaking. What was wrong with her brother?

Kendra forced herself to take her eyes off of her brother when she saw Director Fury placing the Tesseract in a suitcase made especially for it. She quickly grabbed her knives from the wall and stumbled over to her leader, her blooded dripping onto the ground as she did. She kept glancing over at her brother, expecting him to follow them, but he didn't move. Fury gave her a look that ordered her to follow before taking a step towards the exit.

"Please don't." The man said, his voice loud and yet somehow low. Fury stopped and Kendra immediately got into a fighting position, ignoring the sound of her blood hitting the floor. She glanced over at her brother, her eyes begging him to come to her side. He just stared at her in a guarded way he never had before. It was the look he gave people he didn't trust. Kendra felt her heart breaking as she gripped her knives tightly, ready to throw them at the man at any second. "I still need that." The man told Fury. He looked over at Kendra for the briefest second but he seemed to find the Tesseract more important than a potential threat. Or had Kendra's little act of patheticness worked? Hell, she didn't care if it did. This man had done something to her brother, that she was sure of, and all Kendra cared about was getting her brother back.

"This doesn't have to get any messier." Fury said, barely looking back. Kendra cursed him for not turning around, for leaving his back exposed to the enemy. He had been in the field at one point so why was he being stupid? Had he somehow managed to forget his training?

"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else." The man answered, sounding...eager. Kendra glared at him as Fury slowly turned around, a cold look in his eye. "I am Loki of Asgard and I am burdened with glorious purpose." The man said. Kendra could have snorted at that. The man had just killed off almost a whole room of people and he was making introductions. Egotistical introductions but introductions nonetheless.

"Loki? Brother of Thor?" Selvig asked.

The man, Loki, didn't seem to appreciate that at all. He growled slightly, looking at Doctor Selvig with a close to murderous expression on his face. "We have no quarrel with your people." Fury said, trying to distract Loki from Doctor Selvig before he killed the poor man.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot." Loki answered, sounding rather casual about it all.

Fury put on one of his classic death looks. It was a look that had sent hundreds of S.H.I.E.L.D agents running for their mamas but it did nothing to the killer standing before them. "Are you planning to step on us?" Fury asked angrily.

Loki smiled and Kendra's grip on her knives tightened. She hated that smile. _Hated_ it. "I come with glad tidings." The dark haired man said, walking closer to Doctor Selvig. He turned back to Fury, his face once more emotionless. "Of a world made free." He said.

"Free from what?" Fury asked, sounding tired. Kendra didn't blame him for sounding like that. S.H.I.E.L.D had dealt with a lot of guys trying to take over the world in the past and having to deal with yet another one was somewhere between horrible and "well okay we've done this before so I guess we'll do it again."

"Freedom." Loki answered. Kendra gave him a look that said she clearly thought he was insane. He noticed and looked straight at her, seeming to drink in her appearance. She knew he'd be able to tell from appearance alone that Clint was her brother. She glared at him, meeting his green eyes with cold grey ones. "Freedom is life's great lie." Loki seemed to be telling only her. Kendra let out a humorless enraged chuckle, giving him a murderous smile. "Once you accept that, in your heart-" Loki spun around and placed the tip of his scepter on Selvig's heart. Selvig let out a slight gasp as his eyes turned completely black. "-you will know peace." Loki said as Selvig's eyes turned Tesseract blue.

There was a slight thundering sound and the two Bartons looked up at the same time, noticing the mass of blue above where the portal had opened. "Yeah you say peace but I kind of think you mean the other thing." Fury said, his voice flat.

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling." Clint said, walking over to Loki. Kendra stared at her brother in horrified shock. He couldn't seriously be helping this madman. This killer. Her brother would never do that. "This place is about to blow. Drop a hundred feet of rock on us." Clint stopped beside Loki, looking up at the quickly growing mass of Tesseract energy. "He means to bury us."

"Like the pharaohs of old." Fury answered calmly.

Kendra took a step forward, her eyes locked firmly on her brother. "Clint, stop." She begged, her voice cracking slightly. Her brother stared at her, blue eyes glowing with little emotion. Kendra felt pain shoot through her heart. This couldn't be her brother. He would never, _never_, look at her like that if it was. "I'm not saying please, you know I hate that word. Just stop being stupid big bro and get the hell over here." Kendra told him, smiling ever so slightly in hope. Clint hated her cussing. He said it just didn't sound right coming from her and he'd always tell her off when she said even the smallest profanity.

Clint didn't react even a little. Kendra let out a disbelieving pain filled gasp and took another step towards her brother. Fury immediately grabbed her arm and pulled her back, keeping her from going to the one person she trusted with absolutely everything. From her secrets to her very life. Kendra felt tears well up in her eyes and she furiously quenched them, not wanting to show weakness in front of the dark haired man who was smiling at her. "Do not worry about your brother, child." Loki practically purred. Kendra was shaking now, her fury replacing her grief. She wanted to go to her brother and shake sense into him but she also wanted to punch this Loki man in the face so hard his nose broke. "Your brother has seen truth and power. He's better than he's ever been." Loki told her.

"Screw you." Kendra spat at him, her anger not letting her stay silent. Loki's eyes twinkled with slightly annoyed amusement and Kendra took another to attack him. Fury pushed her behind his back, making a small obstacle between her and the dark haired man.

"The portal is collapsing in on itself!" Selvig shouted. He had moved towards his computer while Kendra was begging Clint and now he was staring at a strange red diagram that Kendra didn't understand. "We've got about two minutes before this thing goes critical." Selvig said.

Loki turned to Clint. "Well then." He said, giving the archer a pointed look.

Clint acted immediately. He pulled his gun out of its holster and fired right at Director Fury. Of course he didn't miss and the Director was sent flying backwards, right into Kendra. She fell back, her head hitting the floor painfully. Her vision blurred until she almost couldn't see but she still acted, gently pushing Director Fury off of her. Loki smirked at her as he passed and she let out a growl she didn't know she was capable of making. She stood up, ready to attack the dark haired man, but then she felt something hit the back of her head. Hard. Kendra let out a cry of pain and fell to the ground, just barely managing to throw her hands out to stop her face from slamming into the ground. Her vision started slowly fading to black but she managed to see her brother look back at her as he left the building, her blood on the butt of his gun. Kendra whimpered, unable to muster up her voice and beg her brother to come back. Clint paused for just a second but then Loki barked some order out and he turned away, following the dark haired man. Kendra closed her eyes and gave into unconsciousness, not wanting to face this horrible reality any longer. Not without her brother.


	2. Music

To say that Kendra was depressed was to make a massive understatement. Her pain couldn't even be described in words. Clint had left her before, he had to on certain missions though he never wanted to, but he had never left her without making a promise first. A promise that he'd come back. That he'd make it back to her no matter what tried to stop him. He hadn't promised her that though before he left. No, he'd hurt her before he left. Now Kendra had no guarantee that her brother would return. No way of knowing that he'd come back alive and at least somewhat well. He was in the hands of a madman...there was no guarantee.

Kendra screamed, releasing the built up fury and pain in her chest as she did. No one heard it though, not with her stereo blasting music so loud no sound could possibly be heard from the small room. The stereo she'd brought from her and Clint's home, the little apartment they shared in Las Angeles. It wasn't protocol, having a stereo and blaring the music in the time of a crisis, but Kendra needed it. Fury understood that, he knew all her strange tendencies and coping methods. He knew that she needed to drown out whatever strangled inhuman sounds she made with music. Anyone who asked about the music would be told it was classified information though of course it wasn't. It was just Fury, Maria, and Phil looking out for her.

Kendra took a shuddering breath, her head pounding. After sustaining two massive blows to the head she had gotten a concussion which meant her head hurt like hell. The music and her screaming didn't help the pain but she needed the music and she needed to scream. Kendra got up off her bed, the file she had been reading dropping to the ground as she did. Fury had sent her a report regarding everything she'd missed while unconscious. He'd carried her out, meaning she owed him her life, and had strapped her into the empty copilot seat of a helicopter. He'd gone after Loki and her brother and _shot at them_. Kendra wanted to kill him for that but she couldn't manage to gather up any hate towards him. He'd been doing what he thought was right. Loki, a madman who already admitted he was trying to take over the world, was trying to escape. Fury hadn't wanted him to escape, hadn't wanted him to get loose and threaten the safety of the earth, and so he'd done what he needed to do. But it hadn't worked. He hadn't stopped Loki. The psychopath had left, Clint dutifully driving him away from the base.

That was what had made Kendra scream. Not the physical pain in her head and now sown up stomach. Not the fact that a madman was now loose. No, it was her brother's disappearance that got her to scream. The fact that he had been officially been marked down as M.I.A.

With tears running down her cheeks, Kendra made her way over to the bathroom in her Helicarrier room. The first thing Kendra had done, though rather numbly and pretty much subconsciously, was place a very old but much beloved picture on the mirror like she always did. It was a picture of her and Clint...and their brother Barney all at the circus with their mentors. Their brother...they had no clue where he was now. He'd betrayed them. Left them. It had broken Kendra's heart. She had been so little, she hadn't understood what was happening. The three of them had been a team. Barney was their teacher and their protector, he kept their dad away from Kendra and taught Clint how to fight. Clint had been the hot tempered one, the daredevil almost, that had kept his siblings on their toes and had tried so hard to get back at their dad when he did something horrible. Kendra had been the little ray of sunshine and innocence, cheering up her brothers as often as she could. Barney had gone to the army, leaving them behind. He'd asked them to come along, had a plan all thought up, forgetting that they were way too young to join with him. The Barton boys could fight side by side and Kendra could be a nurse and patch them up when they did something stupid. They hadn't wanted to go but finally decided they couldn't let their brother leave. He'd gone though. They'd reached the bus stop as the bus drove off. Barney left...and they hadn't heard a word from him since.

Clint had taken care of Kendra after that. He'd been the only one who stood by her side, who never left her. When S.H.I.E.L.D recruited him he'd made as many deals as possible to ensure her safety if anything ever happened to him. He had always put her first and she had always put him first. They were an inseparable unbreakable team...And now he was gone.

Kendra's whole body shook as she tried not to sob. Images of what could possibly be happening to her brother filled her head and she tried to push them away but it didn't work. Kendra let out a loud scream, gripping the sink so tightly her knuckles had turned a sickeningly white. She looked up at her reflection and started comparing it to the picture of her child self in the picture.

It had been quite a few years since the photo was taken, she'd been probably no older than five in the picture and was sixteen now, but she could still just barely be recognized by the photo. She'd grown up to be fairly pretty like their mother but her features were marked with cheerfulness, not uncaring depression. Her grey eyes were the same though in the picture they weren't as haunted or as dark. That had been back before she knew just how awful the world was. Her sandy hair so like Clint's had been so short back then, two tiny pigtails on the side of her head. It was down to her waist now, longer than regulation allowed but when did Kendra care about that? Kendra looked at the picture of her brothers, thinking not for the first time that she looked like them. That her hair and eye color was Clint's but the cheerfulness on her face was Barney's.

Kendra found herself on the bathroom floor, curled up into a ball. Clint should be here. He should be making fun of her for crying about him, for worrying about him. He should be telling her that there had been no chance of him not coming back because his promise had been unspoken. Hadn't she noticed it in his eyes? That's what he would say. Kendra would argue that his eyes weren't his and he'd shrug, as if her argument was invalid and he didn't have to prove it with words. He'd then get real serious and pull her into a hug that would make her feel safer than anything cause it was her brother holding her, her brother who would throw himself in front of a speeding train if it meant gaining her safety. He'd tell her that she was so stupid for thinking he'd leave. He'd tell her he wasn't Barney, he'd never leave her. He'd tell her he loved her and wouldn't do anything as stupid as rushing at a madman again. Kendra sobbed, her tears hitting the bathroom floor. She wanted her brother. She _needed_ her brother.

The song booming out of her stereo finished and Kendra bit down on her hand to keep herself from sobbing and letting others hear. When another song started playing she slowly sat up, listening to it. It was a Taylor Swift song that her and Clint absolutely hated. What was its name? I Knew You Were Trouble. That was it. Ugh they hated that song. It was so dumb. So they'd danced around like idiots singing it at the top of their lungs and disturbing their neighbors at two o'clock in the morning when it came on the radio. Kendra had just gotten back from one of the few solo missions she went on. She'd been covered in bandages, having gotten into a bit of an accident when she decided to do something daring, and Clint had been yelling at her for a good hour about taking stupid risks like him. The yelling had stopped when the song had come on and it hadn't resumed afterwards. No, Clint had sat down by his sister on their couch and shook his head with a smile. He told her he was so proud of her and that if she kept being brave like that she'd give him a heart attack. Kendra had told him she didn't want to give him a heart attack through laughter but once she calmed down she'd sworn to be brave no matter what. Clint had laughed at her, told her not to be so serious, but Kendra had really meant it. She was going to be brave.

Like now. She was going to be brave now. Kendra got to her feet, wiping tears away as she did. She looked over at the picture still attached to the mirror and smiled. She kissed two of her fingers and pressed them to the picture. "I'll be brave. Watch me." She whispered, smiling lightly as she did. Kendra took one last look at the picture before bolting towards her dresser to change. If she was going to be brave she couldn't look like a mess while being it.

**Okay so I brought in a bit of the comic books. Don't hate me lol. So this is the third story I'm working on at the moment and I might be adding a fourth one soon. I hope you guys like it! Candy for all my readers!**


	3. Getting Back To Work

When Kendra walked into the control room it was obvious no one was expecting her. They probably all knew about her brother and thought she'd stay in her room for at least a day. Kendra secretly admitted that yeah she would have done that if that stupid song hadn't come on but that didn't stop her from giving everyone a warning smile. It said that she was cool, calm, collected and anyone who challenged that or tried to tell her to leave was going to get dropkicked.

"Director Fury." Kendra said close to cheerfully. Fury turned and was unable to hide the surprise in his eye. Kendra saluted playfully, as if this was just another crisis and her brother wasn't apart of it. "Ready for duty sir. Your report mentioned a certain team so who am I bringing in?" She asked. Fury had mentioned ever so briefly and ever so vaguely in the report about "assembling the Initiative." Paper reports always had to be very vague on important matters only the higher ups could know just in case someone else got their hands on them. So Fury didn't outright say that they were assembling the Avengers but it was easy enough to guess that's what he meant.

"I went to Captain America personally and Agent Coulson is currently assigning Agent Romanoff the task of retrieving Doctor Banner." Fury said. He gestured over to the dry humored agent who had once been Clint's handler and still was Kendra's. Phil seemed to be waiting patiently with his phone to his ear which meant Natasha was doing something kick butt on the other end. Kendra wished she was close enough to hear what was happening on the other end of the phone but she knew she'd hear about it later. "Agent Coulson is going to retrieve Stark soon though. If you ask I'm sure he'll let you go with him." Fury added before turning back to his screens.

Kendra smiled even though Fury couldn't see it. He understood her need to get involved and knew that telling her to let others handle the situation was not a good way to go with her. Ever since she'd first came to S.H.I.E.L.D he'd realized sitting back and doing nothing wasn't Kendra's thing which was why she very rarely went on simple intelligence gathering missions. "Thank you Director Fury." She said, pouring sincerity into her words. Fury nodded a little, acknowledging that he'd hear her. Kendra smiled before turning to Coulson. He was down on the lower platform and there was a railing keeping her from falling down onto the lower platform. Stupid railing. Kendra smirked before taking off running. She leaped into the air just a few feet from it and landed easily on the railing, perched like a bird...like her brother. Kendra leapt down off the railing, landing right in front of Coulson as he hung up his phone. "Hi Phil." She said cheerily.

Phil smiled a little at Kendra. He was slightly on edge around her though, knowing how easily the girl could snap when she was emotional. Phil was her handler but he had always, _always_, let Clint deal with Kendra when she was upset. The older brother was the only one who could fully calm the girl down. Kendra saw the corners of his lips twitch downwards in a sad smile and she knew he was thinking about Clint. "Hello Kendra." Her handler said somewhat curtly.

Kendra rolled her eyes though inside she was building up another scream of frustration. She knew she was kind of scary to deal with when she was stressed or hurt but that didn't mean everyone had to be cautious of her. Especially not Phil. "Fury says if I ask real nice you'll let me go retrieve Mister Stark with you." She said, getting right to the point.

Phil seemed to contemplate that for a second but finally he nodded. "Alright you can come but I suggest more appropriate attire." He told her.

"What's wrong with this?" Kendra asked, gesturing down to her clothes. Simple tee shirt, denim capris, simple running shoes. A gun holster on her thigh, a knife attached to her arm, her weapon pouches secured to her hips.

"Stark doesn't like weapons." Phil explained. He looked thoughtful. "Or being threatened. Or people trying to take his stuff. Or people-."

Kendra promptly covered her handler's mouth with her hand. She had a feeling he could go on for hours about things Stark didn't like. "Yeah Phil I got it. I'll go modify my outfit." She told him. Giving him a cheeky smile, Kendra uncovered his mouth and expertly leaped back over the railing onto the higher platform. She had a bit of a flair for gymnastics and acrobatics, a result of living at a circus for most of her young life. "Meet me outside Phil! I'm going to take a few minutes reaching my room!" Kendra said over her shoulder before practically running from the room.

Director Fury called Agent Coulson to his side the second Kendra was gone. "Keep a closer eye on her than usual." The Director instructed him. Phil nodded, needing no explanation. Both men knew how much Kendra loved and relied on her brother. They knew that having Clint in the hands of a psychopath trying to take over the world must be torture to her.

"Yes sir." Phil said, nodding slightly. Director Fury waved a dismissing hand and Phil immediately left, wanting to get to Stark's as quick as possible so he could move on to much more exciting things. Things like retrieving Captain America.


	4. Tony Freakin' Stark

Kendra was listening to music the whole way to Stark Tower, on the jet and in the car, but that was only so she could dance around and get rid of the jumpy nerves inside her. Only Clint knew about her slight fangirl admiration of Iron Man. The suit was just so awesome! The man inside the suit she had read up on though she never really believed all that stupid stuff in the tabloids. Natasha's report on him had painted a somewhat clear picture of the man they were about to meet. Iron Man had been approved but Tony Stark had not. Which meant Mister Genius Stark was probably going to be one of the most entertaining people she had ever met.

Phil made her turn off her music when they got to the tower, telling her Stark would probably take it as offensive if she was listening to her music. Unfortunately her Ipod was having some technical difficulties and it wouldn't shut off as Phil called up Mister Stark. The first call he made was apologetically denied by a man named Jarvis and Phil immediately started fiddling with the control pad by the elevator. Within minutes they were speeding upwards, Phil trying once again to get a hold of Tony Stark. Which of course he managed because he's Phil freakin' Coulson. Kendra smiled as he stared stoically at the elevator doors.

"Stark, we need to talk." Phil said the second he'd managed to get through to Stark.

There was a paused and Kendra was just able to hear the response. "You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message." There was a breathy laugh following that statement and Kendra couldn't help but snicker too as she tried to get her stupid malfunctioning Ipod to stop playing the Gummy Bear song.

Phil shot Kendra a look that said if she didn't fix the Ipod soon he was going to smash it. "This is urgent." He told the billionaire.

"Then leave it urgently." Stark answered. The elevator doors opened and Kendra stopped randomly pressing buttons long enough to smile up at the couple watching her and Coulson. Stark looked mildly annoyed but not overly. "Security breach." He said. He turned to the ginger beside him. "That's on you." He told her.

"Damn you gummy bear!" Kendra shouted furiously, pressing the pause button once more. Suddenly the music stopped and she let out a loud joyous cry. "Oh thank the stars! Finally!" She said excitedly, turning off her Ipod. She stuffed it into her pocket and looked up to find the two occupants of the room staring at her oddly. Kendra slowly looked over at Phil and saw him giving her a disapproving look. "Sorry Phil." She mumbled apologetically.

Phil shook his head and turned back to the two people staring at them. "Mister Stark." He said politely, putting away his phone. Kendra waved awkwardly from beside him, already falling into a bit of a stunned silence at the sight of the billionaire. She was trying to figure out what she could say to the genius if she got the chance but she was drawing up a blank. What exactly do you say to a guy like Tony Stark that he hasn't heard before?

The ginger, a Miss Pepper Potts if Kendra remembered the file correctly, smiled warmly at the agent. "Phil, come in." She said and Kendra instantly decided she was a nice person. Usually she wouldn't jump to conclusions, her job after all told her not to, but instincts are instincts. They told Kendra the ginger was a nice person and she believed them.

"Phil?" Tony asked as Pepper stood up, champagne glass in hand.

"I can't stay." Phil said, walking into the room. Kendra quickly followed him, wishing she had her knives to twirl or something. Two knives were hidden in the sleeves of her now long sleeved simple shirt but Phil had forbidden her from getting them out. Kendra hated that because if she couldn't play music and she couldn't play with her knives how was she supposed to calm her nerves?

"His first name is Agent." Tony said, pointing at Phil as he dutifully followed his girlfriend over to the two S.H.I.E.L.D agents. Kendra chuckled a little, wondering if Phil had gotten off on the wrong foot with the billionaire. Probably. Phil wasn't exactly known for making too many friends though the ones he had would tell you he was the best guy in the world.

"Come on in." Pepper said cheerfully, noticing how they barely walked into the room. "We're celebrating." The ginger said which explained the champagne glasses and the bottle over on the table.

"Which is why they can't stay." Tony said in a barely hushed voice before putting on a big clearly fake grin. Obviously he had wanted the agents to hear and Kendra couldn't really blame him. S.H.I.E.L.D agents weren't necessarily liked by the people who found out their real identities. Tony looked over at Kendra with mild confusion. "Who are you?" He asked.

Kendra smiled wildly and got into a soldier's stance. She saluted the genius playfully, her usual way to greet people when she was nervous. "Agent Kendra "Dagger" Barton at your service." She said cheerfully.

Tony raised an eyebrow at her while Phil gave her a disapproving look. Phil adored Kendra but she had a horrible tendency to disobey orders and getting on good terms with Tony Stark would probably only make that tendency worse. "Dagger?" The genius asked, sounding somewhere between incredulous and wary.

"Nickname." Kendra explained quickly, falling out of the soldier's stance. "I have a bit of an obsession for sharp objects." She admitted, shrugging a little.

Phil shot her another disapproving look. He had told her about Stark's dislike of weapons right. Tony just nodded, staring at her with mild confusion. Kendra stared back, the cheerfulness slipping from her face to be replaced with a lazy carefree expression. "How old are you?" Tony asked the girl.

Kendra understood his confusion entirely now. People didn't expect someone so young to be in S.H.I.E.L.D since they were always seen as this big bad organization full of untrustworthys. Which was exactly why kids made some of the best spies sometimes. They weren't expected. Of course they were also very unpredictable which was why S.H.I.E.L.D didn't have many of them. If Kendra recalled correctly she had been and still was the youngest S.H.I.E.L.D agent in the last oh fifty some odd years. "I turned sixteen two months ago." She answered, smiling a little as she remembered the very small party she'd had. It had been her, Natasha, and her brother with Phil dropping in for maybe a minute or two. They'd had an epic movie night that had turned into a "let's steal a jet" night. Luckily Kendra had been able to fly a jet since she was thirteen so there were no problems.

"We need you to look over this." Phil said, offering the genius the file he'd had tucked under his arm. He was trying to distract him from asking anymore questions about Kendra. Knowing Stark he probably was already mad about S.H.I.E.L.D using "child soldiers" and he really didn't need anymore fuel for the fire. "As soon as possible."

Tony stared at the tablet looking a little jumpy. "I don't like being handed things." He said. Kendra stared at him, instantly feeling a rush of concern. She'd been around enough people with PTSD to recognize it when she saw it. Clint had it thanks to some rather horrible missions. He'd gotten some odd tendencies and had had nightmares for a long time. Kendra had helped him through the nightmares like a good little sister. Thanks to that she knew exactly how horrid PTSD was and it made her pity those with it.

"That's alright because I love to be handed things." Pepper said immediately, reaching out to grab the file. Kendra smiled pleasantly at her, liking her more and more by the minute. She had been quick to go to Tony's aid and Kendra thought it was sweet. "So let's trade." She said as she took the file and handed Phil her champagne glass.

Pepper handed the file over to Tony and quickly swiped the champagne from him. Kendra stared somewhat longingly at the glass's contents, remembering the very few times she'd had alcohol in her life. It had made her mind delightfully numb and she hadn't been able to think of anything troubling. Kendra swallowed, wondering if it would help her troubled mind now. She knew Clint wouldn't approve though and Phil certainly wouldn't. Fury maybe and Natasha definitely. Maria was debatable. "Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday." Tony said, pulling Kendra out of her thoughts.

"This isn't a consultation." Phil answered immediately. He was holding the champagne glass so awkwardly, as if he had no clue what to do with it.

"Is this about the Avengers?" Pepper asked. Both S.H.I.E.L.D agents turned to her giving her "you shouldn't know anything about that" looks. "Which I know nothing about." Pepper added quickly.

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped." Tony said, walking away as he set up the file. "I thought and," here the genius turned around and gave Phil a slightly confused but somewhat annoyed look, "I didn't even qualify." He stated.

"I didn't know that either." Pepper said, making Phil smile a little. Kendra wondered how the ginger managed to get on good terms with Phil as she carefully watched Stark walk away.

"Yeah apparently I'm volatile, self obsessed, don't play well with others." Tony said, watching them as he neared a desk and tapped away at the now opened file.

Pepper smiled a little though she forced it back. "That I did know." She said.

Kendra smiled at the ginger. "It must be interesting, dealing with someone like him." She said, nodding slightly towards the genius who smirked a little.

"You have no idea." Pepper said wearily though there was undeniable affection in her eyes. Kendra smiled a little more at the obvious love she had for the man across the room.

"Lucky for him this isn't about personality profiles anymore." Phil said, smiling ever so slightly.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever." He said, sounding like he didn't believe them for one second. Kendra didn't blame him at all. "Miss Potts, got a sec?" The genius asked the ginger, beckoning for her to come over with his finger in a somewhat distracted way.

Pepper looked at the agents apologetically. "Half a mo." She told them, holding up one finger. She then quickly walked away, joining Tony at his desk.

Kendra instantly turned to Phil, her eyes landing on the champagne glass in his hand. "Can I please have that?" She begged him, pointing at the bubbling contents.

Phil promptly hit Kendra upside the head. She winced as he clipped the injuries on the back of her head. The injuries were in the same place, a bump being exactly where the split in her skull was. Clint had caused the bump, her head getting split open by the impact with the floor. The split was small enough they didn't need to shave her head to stitch it which was great but it still hurt like hell. Phil looked slightly apologetic but only slightly. "No, you can't have it. If you ask for alcohol again I'll be sure Clint finds out when he gets back." He told her.

"So you think we'll get him back?" Kendra asked softly, her eyes fastened on his face in hope.

Phil looked down at the girl, a wave of sadness hitting him. Kendra was always so sure of her brother's return even when everyone else told her there was a very high possibility of him never coming back. She'd gotten into fights with people when they kept telling her he wasn't coming back. To see her so doubtful of her brother's return made Phil actually kind of want to cry. He'd never seen her this low in his entire life. "Kendra of course I think we'll get him back." Phil said, pouring as much sincerity into his voice as he could. He saw the girl's eyes light up with a bit of hope and he smiled, glad she was at least somewhat cheered up.

Phil probably would have comforted her further if Pepper hadn't come walking over. "So any chance you're driving by LaGuardia?" Pepper asked.

"We can take you." Phil told her, stepping back into the elevator. Kendra gave him a quizzical look as she followed him into the elevator. "It's not that far out of our way." He explained. Kendra nodded though she was a little distracted. She had already guessed what their next task in New York was, retrieving the infamous Captain America. It made Kendra smile a little in amusement. They were going to be retrieving Phil's hero.

"Oh I want to hear about the cellist. Is that still a thing?" Pepper asked conversationally, stepping into the elevator with them.

"She moved back to Portland." Phil said, masking his disappointment with casualness.

"What?! Boo." Pepper said, causing Phil to smile. Pepper pressed the lobby button and the elevator started descending quickly. The ginger looked over at Kendra with a rather sweet smile that Little Barton returned rather easily. "We haven't met before. I'm Pepper Potts, Tony's girlfriend." She said, offering her hand.

Kendra shook Pepper's hand cheerfully. "I know who you are. It's kind of my job." She said with a smile. The ginger looked at her a little funnily but Kendra smiled, dissolving the look. Phil smiled a little at Kendra. She had a very unique form of deceit that very few chose to use. She acted innocent, acted carefree, acted cheerful to trick people. Some of her act was real of course but quite a bit of it was nothing more than a lie. "I've already introduced myself so sorry if I don't do it again. I just find repetition a little annoying." Kendra said, lowering her voice in a way she knew sounded pleasant to basically everyone. Kindness was a very good weapon and she loved to use it.

Pepper smiled pleasantly. "I understand. Tony has weird little tendencies like that so I'm used to it." She said. Kendra nodded understandingly, thinking of the last time Clint woke up from a nightmare. PTSD. Though she never had it Kendra hated it more than most things. "So why's your Ipod acting up?" Pepper asked conversationally.

"Not sure." Kendra said, pulling the device up out of her pocket. There was a small crack along the surface which meant she'd probably hit it against something. She offered up a sad smile to the ginger when she realized where the crack had come from. "I probably busted it during a fight with my brother." She said, her cheerfulness marred by sadness.

Phil frowned deeply. Kendra, for some reason, liked to make little inside jokes about the things that were bothering her. Very few people understood the double meaning in her words when she made the jokes but when they did understand they couldn't help but worry about her. The jokes were cruel and pain inflicting. And they were always redirected at Kendra herself. It was like she said them just to hurt herself, something everyone who cared about her hated.

Of course Pepper had no idea about Kendra's little self hurting joke so she just smiled, a small bit of concern in her eyes at the sadness she noticed in the girl. "So you have a brother?" She asked.

Kendra nodded, smiling sadly. "Yeah, his name's Clint. He's freakin' awesome." She said, her mind immediately turning to the possibilities she feared. Possibilities like her brother never coming back.

"So how's Stark's clean energy campaign going?" Phil asked, pulling the topic away from Clint before Kendra broke down.

Kendra was silent on the way down to the car but she did talk a little when they were driving Pepper to the airport. She politely told the ginger goodbye but was quick to get back in the car, determined to get in a quick nap before they got to Captain America's apartment. When the car stopped outside a swanky hotel she was shocked. "What are we doing here Phil? Aren't we getting the Captain?" She asked tiredly.

"We told him we'd arrive tomorrow." Phil said, getting out of the car. He walked around to the back of the car and pulled two simple backpacks out of the trunk while Kendra sleepily got out of the car. "We don't want to waste time going back and forth so we're staying here for the night." He told her.

"I get my own room?" Kendra asked with a yawn, accepting the backpack Phil offered to her. It probably had basic toiletries and a carefully thought out outfit inside. Of course no one trusted her to dress appropriately when retrieving the super soldier. All her outfits were either too carefree or too threatening which neither was apparently the way to go with Mister Steve Rogers.

"You get your own room." Phil assured her, nodding.

It took them a grand total of five minutes to check in, Director Fury having gotten someone to reserve them rooms before they got there. The second Phil told her what room was hers and gave her the room key Kendra took off running, abandoning her handler for the comfort of a private space all her own. The room was pretty swank for a one night stay too. Small sitting area with a nice TV, large bed, nice big bathroom. The room had wifi and satellite TV, very nice. Still, Kendra barely paid attention to it. She turned the TV on, switched it to cartoons, and cranked up the volume until it was just loud enough to be annoying but not loud enough to cause the people in the other rooms to call the front desk on her. Once that was done she pulled simple shorts and a black sports bra from her bag and changed into them. Sleeping clothes. She needed sleep. Desperately needed sleep. Screw the concussion, the stitches on her head, her recently glued together stomach. She was going to sleep.

Kendra crawled underneath the heavy comforter on the bed and buried her face in the soft as heck pillow. It took her a grand total of three seconds to fall asleep.

**Okay so I put up two more chapters cause I know it's hard to judge the quality of a story from it's first couple of chapters. I hope you all like it. I know some people have done a Clint Barton's little sister thing before but I'm pretty sure none of them have really done what I'm doing so yeah I hope it doesn't suck. Chocolates to all of you. Also, if anyone has a suggestion on the title please tell me because I'm not that crazy for the title.**


	5. Memories and Nightmares

_"Whatcha doin' bro?" Kendra said cheerfully, practically skipping over to her big brother._

_Clint glanced up from where he was cleaning his bow to look at her. She knew what had happened so why was she being so casual? Why was she acting as if nothing had happened? Like it didn't hurt her? "Cleaning my bow." He told her curtly. Kendra let out a soft "ah" sound before sitting down beside him, tucking her feet up close to her chest as she did. She watched him carefully and he glanced over at her, furiously cleaning away the dirt on his bow. "If you've got something to say then go ahead and say it. I'm busy." He said angrily._

_Kendra ignored his anger and somewhat hurtful words. He wasn't mad at her, she knew that, so she didn't react to it. "I don't know what you could possibly mean big brother." She said innocently._

_The archer sighed loudly and placed his bow down, turning to his sister as he did. "I know Phil told you." He said, giving her a simple "stop lying to me" expression._

_"So what if he did?" Kendra challenged though not angrily. Clint grunted angrily and turned back to his bow, his nerves raw. Kendra pulled a knife out of her boot and started absently cleaning her fingernails with it. "It doesn't change anything Clint. You did what you felt was right." She told her brother._

_"That's what you think little sister." Clint said without looking at her. Why had he done it? It was supposed to be such a quick and easy job. A simple kill, he'd done it before. Why? Why had he done it?!_

_"That's what I _know_ big brother." Kendra said firmly._

_Clint sighed, she sounded so much like Barney sometimes. So full of conviction, like she really did know exactly what she was talking about. Clint wished he could be like that. He wished he could know and not doubt his own actions. The archer put his bow down and slowly laid down so that he was staring up at the night sky. They weren't supposed to be up here on top of the S.H.I.E.L.D base but who was really going to tell off the Barton siblings? Especially with Clint so strung up and Kendra...well no one knew how she was. She wasn't acting how they all expected her to._

_Kendra put away her knife and laid down beside her brother. "Why'd you come up here?" She asked as she stared up at the stars. Those little pinpricks of light had always enthralled her. They were the one thing she couldn't capture and look at. Also one of the few things she couldn't reach with one of her knives._

_"You know why. I come up here to think." Clint told her._

_"Why do you need to think?" Was the immediate answer._

_"Why do you have to ask questions?" Came the annoyed response._

_Kendra gave her brother a devilish smile. "You know why." She said, copying him because she knew it annoyed him._

_Clint rolled his eyes, the exact response Kendra had been going for. "Kendra." He said softly, suddenly switching into seriousness. The young girl looked over at her brother, concern appearing in her eyes. "Why aren't you mad? Or jealous? Or something?" Clint asked worriedly. He had expected her to throw some sort of fit but that wasn't what she was doing at all. She was so calm. Acting so _normal_. It freaked Clint out._

_Kendra bit her lip, debating whether to tell him the truth or not. Just a few short hours ago her brother had brought Natasha Romanoff, the infamous Black Widow, back to base. He refused to kill her even though she was his target. He made bargains for the red haired girl like he had once made bargains for Kendra. Admittedly, Kendra was a little jealous. Clint had been so attached the girl when they were in the same room, standing protectively in front of her and giving everyone a look that said if they tried threatening her he'd kill them. It was so obvious he cared about Natasha which was why he thought Kendra would be jealous. Kendra was very young still and had been the only person Clint cared about for a long time. All logic said she should be throwing a fit and saying that she didn't want the new girl around her brother. But Kendra had always been one to confuse people. She'd been jealous yes but she'd also been extremely happy. For the longest time it had been her and Clint against the world and neither one had trusted anyone. It actually made her extremely happy to see her brother trusting someone other than just her._

_"I'm not mad. You didn't think killing her was right, I get it. You followed your instincts." Kendra told her brother. Clint nodded absently, waiting for the next part of her answer. "I _am_ a little jealous though. What if you decide you like spending time with her more than me?" She said, turning her fear into a joke._

_Clint grabbed his sister's hand and held it up for her to see. "See that little sis? We're family. Nothing get's between us." He told her. Kendra smiled a little though she didn't look all that convinced. Clint squeezed his sister's hand. "Tell you what. I'll make you a promise." He said. Quickly Clint got to his feet, releasing her hand as he did. He swiftly picked up his bow and turned around to face a now sitting up Kendra. He held his bow out in front of him as if he was offering it to her. "I swear on my bow that I'll never choose others over you sis. I'll never choose someone else's company over yours and I'll never abandon you either." He told her sincerely._

_Kendra grinned wildly up at her brother and nodded._

In reality Kendra grinned too...until suddenly her memory turned bad.

_Clint's eyes suddenly glowed Tesseract blue and Kendra's own eyes widened in terror. He produced a black arrow from thin air and notched it, pointing it directly at her heart. Kendra slowly started moving backwards, her fear making her shake. "Clint." She said fearfully. When he slowly started to walk forward, the menacing arrow still pointed at her chest, she whimpered. "Big bro you promised not to hurt me. You promised when Barney left." She reminded him._

_Cold dark laughter filled Kendra's ears. Somehow she just knew it had to belong to Loki, that madman. Clint smirked evilly though as he stared at her, his blue eyes glowing. "I lied." He told her in a terrifyingly cheerful voice. He released his bow string, letting loose the black deadly arrow. Kendra felt it pierce through her heart and the laughter grew louder and louder as she sunk into death's embrace._

Kendra sat up, her whole body covered in a horrible cold sweat. Her hands instantly searched for the arrow in her heart but it wasn't there. Nope, nothing but littered with scars skin. Kendra sighed in relief then sucked in a shattered breath when grief set in. She brought her knees up to her chest instantly and buried her face in her knees, her body shaking as she tried to hold in her sobs.


	6. Early Morning Chit Chat

**Afb, Sam, madscientistavenger, whichever one of those you want to go by, you've got a message at the bottom of this.**

Phil could tell very easily how badly the young girl had slept when he came to get her the next morning. For one, the girl who hated mornings more than anything was up at six o'clock. Second, there were dark bags under her eyes that were also red and puffy. Third, she was on the S.H.I.E.L.D laptop that had been packed away in her bag. The girl never used S.H.I.E.L.D laptops, she said she didn't like them monitoring what websites she got on while on it. If she was on it she must need some major distraction that her music alone couldn't provide. Her music which was so loud in her ears that even Phil could hear it.

"Kendra!" Phil shouted, knocking on the door loudly. She just barely noticed the movement and looked up briefly to acknowledge him. Phil sighed, shut the door, and walked over to the exhausted girl. Before she could protest he grabbed her Ipod and turned it off, actually managing it somehow. He threw it onto the couch and stared at the girl who was now blankly looking at him. "Kendra, what's wrong?" He asked her.

"Nothing." Kendra said immediately, tapping away at the laptop. Originally she'd been searching the S.H.I.E.L.D database for any updates on her brother but when she found none she started going through internet archives of newspapers around the world to see if anything suspicious had shown up since her brother was taken. But nope, there hadn't been anything. So now she was torturing herself with memories as she went through old mission files of hers, her brother's, and Natasha's.

"I don't believe you." Phil told her.

"Good, I didn't ask you to." Kendra answered. She smiled a little at the Budapest file, it was so damn vague. Clint and Natasha had told her the stuff they'd kept out of the file, stuff that was way too private to put in a mission file, and it was kind of funny to know something that S.H.I.E.L.D didn't.

Phil frowned and took the laptop from her. Kendra let out a furious groan and buried her face in the comforter while he looked through what she'd been doing. "You were looking through mission files? I thought you hated doing that." He said, looking at one of her old mission files that had gone absolutely horribly wrong. She'd nearly died. Kendra simply shrugged before crawling off the bed and onto the floor. She crawled over to the couch and curled up into a ball on one of the cushions, too depressed to walk. "Kendra what's wrong?" Phil asked again.

"I already told you, nothing." Kendra grumbled angrily. She knew her lie was absolutely horrible and her appearance was probably unbelievably awful but she didn't want to admit that something was wrong. She didn't want Phil knowing that she'd had a nightmare and broken down and was afraid of going back to sleep just in case she dreamed of her brother killing her again.

"Kendra Sophia Barton." Phil said sternly, making Kendra flinched. He'd used her middle name. He meant business. "Stop lying, now. Tell me what's wrong." Phil ordered her.

Kendra let out a loud annoyed groan as she pulled herself up into a sitting position. She stared emotionlessly at Phil, locks of tangled hair falling down into her face. "Phillip Coulson, what do you think is wrong?" She asked, her voice gruff with pain and anger. Phil flinched a little, ducking his head in shame. Kendra just kept staring at him, looking like she didn't have enough energy to be speaking. "My brother's gone. He's been messed up by some freaktacular guy from outer space and is now missing in action. I don't know if I'll ever get him back and to make matters worse I had a dream that he killed me." Kendra said, her voice flat. She swallowed, the lump in her throat making it painful. "Are you happy now Phil? I've told you what's wrong so are you happy?" She asked him.

Phil just stared at her. He'd never seen her like this, ever. He wanted her to be mad. To be screaming and crying and complaining. He wanted her to display emotion but she wasn't. Something completely uncharacteristic of Kendra Barton, one of the most emotional agents S.H.I.E.L.D had ever trained. "Kendra." He said softly.

"I'm gonna get ready. I'll be in the lobby in fifty minutes." Kendra said, getting up. She grabbed her backpack and walked into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. Phil heard the shower turn on and he left the hotel room with a heavy heart. Of course he had no clue that the reason Kendra had tuned the shower on so quickly was so that he wouldn't hear her sobbing.

**Hello all my lovelies. Lol How you been? Anyways, chocolate for you all.**

**Afb, thanks very much for yet another review :) I don't really like stories with people added into the movie either but that's exactly why I write my own. It's kind of like a writing challenge for me. See if I can write a good one despite the fact that they're pretty hard to write. Anywho, you have an account now! Yay!**


	7. Awkward Moments Galore

Captain America. Wow. Kendra already thought the guy was viciously impressive but she never thought she'd get star struck by him. Her slack jawed expression was no doubt to be blamed on the major fanboy feels Phil was giving off. Kendra watched the Captain while he read the contents on the S.H.I.E.L.D tablet they'd given him. He looked uncomfortable using the technology but that just made Kendra smile brightly. It wasn't every day you met a technophobe in the twenty-first century.

"Can I just say how adorably awkward you look?" Kendra said with a slight squeal. Steve Rogers looked up at her with a very confused and slightly frightened expression that just made Kendra smile. "You're like a puppy!" She said, clapping her hands a little.

"Kendra, stop scaring American heroes." Phil told her, placing his headphones down.

Of course Kendra just rolled her eyes. "American heroes need a little scaring every once in a while Phil. It's what keeps them on their toes." She said as if it was the absolute truth. Phil just rolled his eyes and got up from his chair.

"So this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum they used on me?" Steve asked as Phil walked over to him, gesturing to the tablet in his hands. Kendra had a feeling he asked that just to make the conversation a little less awkward for him. It made Kendra smile because Phil's fanboy feels were probably going to make the conversation very awkward indeed.

"Not just him." Kendra said though the question hadn't been directed at her. Steve looked over at her, an eyebrow raised in confusion or maybe curiosity. Maybe both. Kendra scoffed but grinned. "Seriously? You're surprised?" She asked him. Steve just shrugged a little, a light blush appearing on his face. "You were the first superhero. The very first. Of course people wanted more of you!" Kendra told him. She frowned lightly at the video of the Hulk rampaging on Steve's tablet. "Unfortunately Doctor Banner's attempts didn't really work out so great." She said almost sadly.

"Still, the guy's like a Stephen Hawking." Phil said and Kendra nodded her agreement. She'd read some of his notes before and just the sight of them had confused the heck out of her. Steve looked up at Phil in confusion and the agent blushed slightly. "He's like a smart person." Coulson explained lamely. Kendra chuckled a little at Steve's unknowingness though she did feel a bit bad for the guy. The whole missing seventy years must suck. Phil cleared his throat awkwardly. "I got to say, it's an honor to meet you. Officially." Phil said, smiling a little. Steve smiled a little, unsure how to respond to that. "I sort of met you. I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping." Steve looked over at Kendra, silently begging her to tell him how to react to that. Kendra was too busy dying though, a hand pressed over her mouth to stifle the laughter pouring out of her mouth. "I mean I was...I was present while you were unconscious...from the ice." Phil said awkwardly, trying to save his dignity.

Kendra got up from her seat and walked over to her handler, a huge grin on her face as she tried so hard not to laugh. "Phil." She began, giggling a little. Her handler's cheeks were the brightest red in the world and it was just so funny. A little sad cause he'd just embarrassed himself in front of his childhood hero but still. "You should really stop now. Before, you know, you embarrass yourself." Kendra told him as kindly as she could. She turned to Steve who had just figured out how to turn off his tablet. "He's just very excited to have you here. We all are really. Having you here is a huge honor." She told him cheerfully, smiling at him sweetly.

Steve nodded, getting up. "Well I hope I'm the right man for the job." He said seriously. Kendra had a feeling he didn't like to disappoint people, something she could relate to somewhat.

"Oh you are!" Phil said, eager to make his hero forget his horrid choice of words.

Kendra patted her handler's arm with a smile. "He's right. You're amazing. You'll do perfectly." She assured the soldier. Steve nodded and smiled a little though he didn't look very convinced. He walked over to the front of the jet and looked out at the ocean. At the Helicarrier they were slowly approaching. Kendra nudged her handler. "Tell him about the uniform!" She whispered to him harshly.

Phil nodded and walked over to the Captain. "By the way, we made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input." He told the super soldier.

Kendra promptly rolled her eyes. _"A little? You practically redesigned the whole thing yourself!" _She thought though she didn't say anything out loud. Why embarrass her handler further right?

"The uniform?" Steve asked in confusion, looking over at Phil. "Aren't the stars and stripes a little," he searched for the word looking a little depressed, "old fashioned?" He asked.

_"Oh dear God! Someone get this man a cookie he looks like a sad puppy!" _Kendra thought, having a silent freak out where the two men couldn't see her. It was so sad and so adorable at the same time.

Phil frowned thoughtfully. "Everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned." Phil said somewhat sadly.

"Oh yeah definitely!" Kendra said with a somewhat hysterical laugh, ruining the foreboding feeling that was settling in the two men. They both turned to her, the agent looking concerned and the soldier looking a little frightful. Kendra guessed he wasn't used to emotionally stressed people. "Having a psychopath trying to take over the world with the magic blue cube of death will be very stressful." She said with another laugh, her mind drifting towards the cube and her brother.

"Kendra." Phil said gently, his polite way of telling her to shut up. Kendra nodded sadly and pulled her Ipod out of her pocket, jamming the earbuds furiously into her ears as she did. Once the music was on and so loud they could hear it, Phil turned back to Steve. "You'll have to excuse her behavior. Her brother was taken by Loki." He said sadly, glancing over at the much beloved girl.

Steve looked between Phil and Kendra, his expression somewhere between shock and extreme pity. "I'm so sorry. That must be awful for her." He said, compassion in his voice. He knew what it was like to have someone you cared about trapped somewhere and to not know if they were dead or alive. On his way to save Bucky Steve had had a million awful thoughts running through his head. Like, what if he's not there? What if I don't get to him before they do something horrible to him? What if he's dead? So yeah, Steve knew how the young girl felt.

Phil didn't say anything else, not wanting to accidentally embarrass Kendra by telling the super soldier how upset she was. They flew the rest of the way to the Helicarrier in silence, neither man really knowing what to say and Kendra too busy going through her therapeutic playlist of stupid songs. When they finally landed it was a great relief to all three of them and, not surprisingly, Kendra was the first one off the jet. She yanked her earbuds out when she spotted the one person who knew her almost as well as Clint walking towards them. The Black Widow herself. Natasha Romanoff.

"We'll talk later." Natasha said before Kendra could say anything. Kendra nodded, knowing the spy would make sure they got the chance to talk as soon as possible. Natasha pointed over to a uncomfortable looking man Kendra instantly recognized as Doctor Banner. "Go talk to him while I deal with Coulson's golden boy, alright?" The deadly redhead said.

"Yes Agent Romanoff." Kendra said, smiling a little. Natasha managed a small smile in return before Kendra went walking over to the genius that was Doctor Banner. As she neared him she offered a hand. "Doctor Banner, so good to meet you." She said cheerfully. Bruce took the young girl's hand and shook very briefly before quickly clasping his hands back together. "My name is Kendra Barton, I'm an agent here at S.H.I.E.L.D. Don't worry though I'm not nearly as high strung as the rest of them." She told him with a pleasant smile.

Bruce nodded a little, obviously jittery and obviously distrusting. "Good to know." He said somewhat awkwardly.

Kendra smiled at him in an almost pitying way. The poor guy didn't trust anything remotely military and yet he was on what could only be described as a military war ship. It must be difficult. "I'm sorry we had to call you in." Kendra said sincerely, surprising the genius slightly. "I realize you must hate this and truthfully I do too. I mean, yeah I work for these people but that doesn't mean I like the whole gigantic war ship we've got going on here. So, yeah, I know how it feels so if you need anything, anything at all, tell me. I'll keep people from asking questions and anything else you may need." She told him, her voice ringing with sincerity. Kendra had no clue what her job would be now that they'd gotten some of the team together but that didn't stop her from saying what she did. Even if she got a job completely unrelated to the doctor she'd still go and help him. She thought he deserved it since it was completely unfair to bring him in on this.

The doctor didn't seem to know how to respond to that but he gave a small smile. "Um thank you?" He said uncertainly. Kendra smiled at him, knowing he was probably debating whether or not to trust the unusual S.H.I.E.L.D agent in front of him. "Exactly how old are you?" Bruce asked curiously, an eyebrow raised.

"Sixteen." Kendra answered before catching sight of Natasha and Steve walking over. She waved at them with a bright smile before turning to the doctor. "Come along Doctor Banner, time to meet the super soldier." She told him cheerfully. Bruce looked like he wanted to ask a few questions, more than likely about her age, but he shut his mouth as the soldier and the spy got closer.

"Doctor Banner." Steve said politely, offering his hand to the doctor. The two S.H.I.E.L.D agents gave the men space, staying back to see how they'd react to each other.

Doctor Banner reached out and shook Steve's hand. "Oh yeah, hi. They told me you'd be coming." He said politely before quickly pulling his hand away. He clasped his hands tightly together and began twiddling his thumbs. Kendra watched him with a pitying smile, feeling bad for hm and his nervousness.

Natasha leaned down slightly so that she was closer to Kendra. "You feel bad for him." She said in a somewhat hushed voice. It wasn't a question, more like an all knowing statement.

"You really can't blame me. The poor guy's gonna get used and you know it." Kendra whispered back, making sure the genius didn't hear.

"We all have to do our part to protect the world." Natasha said with a slight shrug.

Kendra smiled a little at that. Natasha didn't say stuff like that unless she was doubting orders. "Civilians don't have a part. They're supposed to stay safe out of harm's way." She said.

Natasha smiled in that way that always made Kendra think the redhead knew something she didn't. "He's not exactly a civilian Ken doll." The spy said. Kendra shrugged to cover up her slight wince. Clint was the one who gave her that annoying nickname and despite Natasha using it from time to time it was always _Clint's_ nickname for her. It kind of hurt to hear that bit of normalcy from someone other than her brother. Natasha didn't notice the wince but she quickly realized her mistake. "Oh Kendra I'm sor-." She was cut off by someone talking in her earpiece. Natasha shot Kendra an apologetic look before replying. "Yes, okay, I'll inform them. They'll be in the control room in twenty minutes." She told whoever was speaking. There was a short pause and then Natasha sighed, reaching into her pocket as she did. She handed whatever she got out of her pocket to Kendra who instantly took it, looking at it with amusement. "I knew you'd forget it." Natasha said.

Kendra carefully put in the earpiece, smiling. "You know me too well." She said cheerfully. The redhead nodded in agreement before walking over to the men who had wandered a bit away.

"Gentlemen, you may want to step inside in a minute." Natasha said, both men turning to look at her as she approached them. "It's gonna get a little hard to breath." She said, shooting Kendra a knowing smile.

The loud instantly recognizable sound of something metal moving filled the air. The two men looked around, noticing how everyone was scrambling around to make sure everything was secured to the surface of the Helicarrier. "Is this a submarine?" Steve asked, somewhat confused but slightly awed.

Doctor Banner let out a small somewhat dark laugh. "Really? They want me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" He asked somewhat jokingly.

Kendra chuckled a little though her mind was focused on the cage she knew had been made specifically for Doctor Banner. She watched as the two men wandered to the edge of the Helicarrier, watching the people around them as she did to make sure no one did anything stupid. As she looked around she noticed the intimidating yet elegant way Natasha observed her surroundings and couldn't help but chuckle. "You look so at ease." Kendra said with a chuckle, shaking her head.

"Is that really a bad thing?" Natasha asked with a smirk.

"Around war items? Maybe." Kendra said, giving her friend a playfully judgmental look. Natasha shrugged her shoulders as if it wasn't a big deal then motioned slightly with her head towards the two men who were now walking back towards them. A simple sign telling Kendra to deal with them. The young girl understood completely why she had to interact with the two men, she seemed the more trustworthy out of the two of them. So Kendra flounced over to them, grinning sweetly. "We should be getting inside boys. You know, before we suffocate from lack of air." She said with a slight laugh.

About five minutes later Kendra was chatting away with Steve about the music she could catch him up on if he wanted while Natasha patiently lead them to the Bridge. Bruce looked so nervous as he walked and he kept looking around as if he expected someone to attack him. Kendra tried her best to make him feel better but it's kind of hard to talk to someone who doesn't trust you. Luckily though they arrived in the Bridge and Kendra didn't have to try talking much longer. Not with Bruce placing himself at the very back of the room while Steve openly wandered towards the front. Kendra went to the front of the conference table and sat on it, leaning back against her hands and kicking her legs back and forth in a carefree kind of way. Of course she was far from carefree and anyone who looked in her eyes would have seen how hard she was trying to stay composed.

Fury turned around and started walking towards the two men. "Gentlemen." He said politely. Steve walked forward, fishing something out of his pocket as he did. Kendra watched in bewildered amusement as the super soldier handed the Director a ten dollar bill without looking at him. Fury smirked ever so slightly and when Kendra gave him a quizzical look he shrugged. "Just a bet Agent Dagger." He told her. Kendra nodded absently and then jumped down off the table, wandering over to Agent Hill.

"Auntie Hill!" Kendra said jokingly as she approached the tall woman.

Maria Hill turned to face Kendra and a strict well practiced smile appeared on her face. "Agent Dagger, how are you?" She asked politely.

Kendra rolled her eyes at the woman's professional ways. "Fine Agent Hill but not great. Mostly because of how formal you're talking to me." She said. Maria's cheeks turned the lightest of pinks and her smile turned a bit more genuine and slightly apologetically. "No offense Auntie Hill but, why so serious?" Kendra asked.

"You never miss the chance to quote movies do you?" Maria asked with a sigh.

"Nope!" Kendra said cheerfully, popping the p. She flashed Maria a smile before turning on her heel and searching for Natasha. She found her kneeled down beside one of the computers, looking through Clint's profile. "Natasha leave that alone. I already looked through all of it." She told the redhead.

Natasha nodded absently but she looked extremely upset. She also wasn't really paying attention, her focus on the conversation Doctor Banner and Fury were having. "That's still not gonna find them in time." Natasha commented, her voice cracking slightly.

Kendra's heart skipped a beat. Natasha, _Natasha Romanoff_, just allowed a weak emotion to show in her voice. Kendra stared at her friend in broken hearted horror and wished desperately they weren't in a room filled with other agents so she could hug the deadly redhead. "Natasha." Kendra whispered gently. The redhead shook her head though, telling her to wait.

"Agent Romanoff." Fury said, catching Natasha's attention. The Russian instantly straightened up and walked over, composing herself as she did. "Will you show Doctor Banner to his laboratory please?" He asked her though it was most definitely an order.

Natasha nodded dutifully as she walked past Doctor Banner, not giving him even a passing glance. "You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys." She said as she walked towards the exit, sounding completely back to normal.

Kendra started to basically run after the redhead. "I'm gonna go with Agent Romanoff. Bye Grandpa Fury! Bye Auntie Hill!" She said jokingly. Both of them shot her annoyed looks but before either could reprimand her she was out the door and by Natasha's side. "Oh thank God! I'm out of there!" Kendra said with a slight chuckle. She gave Bruce a smile when she noticed him staring at her. "Having fun yet Doctor Banner?" She asked him.

"Not exactly. Tell me, how did someone so young end up at S.H.I.E.L.D?" Bruce asked.

"You've been waiting to ask me that since I told you my age haven't you?" Kendra asked knowingly. Bruce shrugged somewhat sheepishly but looked at her expectantly, wanting an answer. Natasha just barely shook her head but Kendra felt obliged to answer him. "My brother was recruited when I was very young and since he was the only one I had in the world he forced the agency to take me in too." Kendra answered.

"So you're not a child soldier?" Bruce asked, looking concerned.

"No of course not!" Kendra said in shock, her eyes wide. Natasha chuckled at Kendra's response, smirking a little as they rounded a corner. "What's up with you geniuses and asking about my age? I mean, come on, I know I'm young but I'm not exactly a toddler." Kendra said, remembering her encounter with Tony. "Besides, S.H.I.E.L.D doesn't use child soldiers. Children are too unpredictable." She said, only half joking. Bruce opened his mouth to speak but Kendra cut him off, gesturing to the door leading into his lab. "Here you are Doctor Banner! Your own personal playground! I'm sure you'll figure everything out, you are a genius after all. Bye Bruce!" Kendra said quickly, grinning as she did.

Bruce nodded, a little flustered by how fast Kendra was talking, and quickly disappeared inside the lab. Kendra smiled as he easily settled into his natural habitat before getting roughly pulled down the hallway by Natasha. Kendra chuckled a little as she was dragged towards her temporary bedroom on the Helicarrier though mentally she was preparing herself for the no doubt heart breaking conversation she was about to have with the Russian.


	8. Recounting

Natasha triple locked Kendra's door before sitting down beside her on the bed. "What happened?" The redhead asked, her voice hushed as if she thought someone was listening. She turned her pale olive green eyes on the younger girl, a desperate plead for information in them. "Please Kendra, tell me." She begged.

Kendra sighed deeply, burying her face in her hands. "Nat, I don't want to relive it." She whispered. Still, Kendra could feel Natasha's desperation and she knew she had to tell her what had happened. Of course she wasn't going to go into detail, that would be just a bit too painful. "The Tesseract started acting up and then this creeptacular guy from outer space came through some freaky portal the Tesseract decided to open up. He blasted at us but you know how great we are at dodging trouble." Kendra said with a slight chuckle. It was an ongoing joke how the two Bartons could always weasel out of situations they didn't want to be in. Natasha smiled a little at the joke but not much, too desperate to know what had happened to appreciate the joke. "The alien guy has wicked aim with knives though he's not nearly as good as me. I tried to prove that too and I would have killed him if he hadn't had the force field of death around him. My knives bounced back towards me and I nearly died. Which of course set off Clint. He started shooting at the guy like a madman." Kendra said. She was trying to make it sound like a no big deal kind of thing, describing it like how she usually described bad parts in missions. Nonchalantly and with a lot of jokes.

"Completely normal for him. He can't stand to see you get attacked." Natasha said, smiling a little. She was remembering the last couple of missions the three of them had been on and the very stupid mistakes Clint had made to protect his sister from gunfire.

"Yeah, but this time his little revenge tactic didn't really work. The guy's force field kept my darling brother from doing any damage." Kendra said ruefully. Natasha frowned just as ruefully, probably wishing the same thing as Kendra. That Clint had riddled the guy with bullets. "Unfortunately I didn't really see what happened past that cause I was busy trying to see if my intestines were falling out of my stomach but when I did look up outer space guy had ahold of Clint. He touched the place above Clint's heart with the golden scepter thing and I'm pretty sure that's when my brother stopped being my brother." Kendra felt tears well up in her eyes and a lump form in her throat but she forced them away. She couldn't let herself get emotional, not again. She'd cried enough already. Still, Kendra didn't dare look over at Natasha when she spoke again, knowing she'd break down if she saw the look on the Russian's face. "I shouted at my brother, you know, cause I was afraid for him. But then I saw his eyes and I...I froze, Nat. His eyes were blue and I don't mean like baby blue I mean _Tesseract _blue. _Unearthly _blue. It was terrifying. _He _was terrifying." Kendra practically whispered. She didn't even notice how much she was shaking, she was too busy reliving what had happened. "He put up his gun. He stared at Loki like an obedient slave. Then he told Loki about Fury's plan to bury us all. I begged him to stop, I _begged him_, but he wouldn't listen and when I tried to attack Loki Fury pushed me behind his back. Then Clint _shot_ Fury and the Director flew back, running into me. I hit my head on the floor." Kendra took another deep breath, ignoring the tears running down her cheeks. Natasha, surprisingly, wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders. "I got up when Loki was walking by, ready to attack him, but then I felt something hit my head and I fell back down. When I looked up I saw Clint following Loki and...my blood was on his gun."

Kendra broke down then, twisting herself so that her eyes were buried in Natasha's shoulder. Natasha wrapped her arms around Kendra and placed her chin on the young girl's head, staring stoically at the wall. She was trying so hard not to react the way the younger Barton was but she was starting to fail the battle. Clint had basically saved Natasha's life and she cared about him more than anyone, though she would never admit it. The idea of him being compromised, of him being the puppet of a crazed man trying to take over the world, made her want to break down like a child. Natasha would never admit it but she couldn't imagine life without Clint.

Natasha pushed the girl back a little so that Kendra could see her perfectly serious face. "We are going to get him back Kendra. If we have to go to hell and back, we will get him." She promised the younger girl.

Kendra responded by enveloping the older woman in a hug. "Thank you Nat." She managed to say through her sobs. Natasha nodded a little in response, her eyes once again locking on the wall as she thought up a plan to save the most important man in both their lives.

**Thanks to all my lovely reviewers! I hope you continue to like my story :) As for the fans of my Daughter of Tony Stark story I will be putting up the first chapter on the sequel sometime this week, more than likely at the same time I update this story again or my Helena Laufeydottir and Britta Nodottir stories. Chocolate frogs for all!**


	9. Meeting Thor and Heart Hurting News

**Short I know, don't kill me.**

Kendra was furious. It was clear by the glare she was giving Fury as he gave orders to the agents in the Bridge. An agent had informed them about spotting Loki in Stuttgart and the two women had rushed to the Bridge immediately. Fury gave Natasha permission to go with Steve to Stuttgart but when Kendra tried to go with her the Director had told her to stay behind. Which of course resulted in an epic fight between them that left everyone in the Bridge stunned. Kendra wanted to go just in case her brother was with Loki but Fury told her that if he was there he didn't want Kendra doing anything stupid to retrieve him. They argued until the jet containing Steve and Natasha was gone. Kendra's furious shouts were quickly replaced by stone cold silence that scared everyone but Fury.

"Sir, the escort team is escorting Loki to the containment cell now." Natasha informed the Director over the comm link. "I'm bringing Thor to the Bridge now. I suggest you allow Agent Dagger to talk to him sir." She told him.

"Good job Agent Romanoff." Was Fury's curt reply. He turned on his heels and faced the young agent sitting on the table, kicking her legs and glaring at him. "Agent Dagger you're about to meet a god. I suggest you act accordingly." He told her.

Kendra's anger was quickly replaced by shock. "Which one?" She asked.

"Thor." Fury told her. Kendra felt a small bit of disappointment though she didn't show it. She wanted to talk to Loki. She wanted to know where her brother was and only he could tell her. "Agent Romanoff suggested you specifically which means you need to wipe that glare off your face and look as innocent as a Barton can." Fury informed her.

Kendra pouted slightly but she nodded, wiping the anger off her face. A mask of cheerful playful sweetness appeared on her face and she smiled brilliantly at everyone. When Natasha and Thor entered the Bridge she jumped down off the table and walked over to them. She ignored Thor, going straight to Natasha and pulling her into a sisterly hug. Thor noticed of course and Kendra smiled a little, she loved when her plans worked. "You're okay!" Kendra said, sounding so relieved. She now looked the part of a loving worried little sister in the eyes of the golden haired god.

Natasha chuckled and gently pushed Kendra away, a knowing twinkle in her eyes. "Of course I'm okay Kendra. I told you I would be." She said with a small smile.

"I know but I still worry." Kendra told her. In truth she never worried about Natasha. Not the infamous Black Widow, the woman who could survive anything and everything. Kendra gave Natasha a stunning smile before turning to Thor who was glaring at the Director who had just introduced himself to the god. Meaning, Fury was intimidating and rude and a tad bit threatening as he said his name and some subtle threat. "You must be the infamous Thor I've heard so much about." Kendra said, holding her hand out for the god to shake.

Thor eyed her hand for a second or two before deciding to shake it. "Greetings young one." He said politely.

"You can call me Kendra or Miss Barton if you want to be formal." Kendra said cheerfully. Thor nodded a little and looked around with slight caution, like he didn't trust anything in the room. Completely understandable in Kendra's opinion. "If you don't mind me saying, I'm sorry about your brother." Kendra said gently, meaning every word. It must be difficult knowing your brother was a psychopath.

"Thank you." Thor said sincerely, giving Kendra a small smile. "I assumed there would be no sympathy from you Midgardian warriors. Lady Natasha has informed me that Loki is already much despised here." He said.

Kendra smiled sadly at him. "I'm sympathetic towards _you_, Thor." She told him. Thor looked a little upset by that and Kendra couldn't help but think he looked like a bit like a sad puppy. Which of course made her want to apologize immediately. "I'm sorry Thor but I can't feel bad for your brother. Not when he's controlling the mind of mine." She told him.

Thor looked at her in surprise. "Loki is controlling your brother?" He asked, sounding concerned. For her or for Clint she couldn't quite tell.

Kendra nodded, hiding her pain with a sullen look. "Yeah, he does." She said. Her voice came out angry and bitter till the end when it cracked slightly. She hadn't meant for it to crack but she suddenly remembered her nightmare and it happened. She cursed herself for letting Thor hear it.

Surprisingly though, Thor looked apologetic. "I swear on my life that I will help get your brother back Lady Kendra." He told her, sounding completely and utterly sincere.

Kendra felt tears well up in her eyes but she pushed them down, not wanting to look weak. "Thank you." She whispered, smiling up at him.

"Sir we just got an alert from Stuttgart!" An agent called out to Fury. That immediately caught Kendra's attention and she watched the Director walk over to the agent. They talked for a few minutes and watched a video she couldn't quite see clearly. Fury looked beyond mad by the time he walked back over.

"Director Fury?" Kendra asked cautiously. It was never a good idea to address an angry Fury but she was curious as to what ticked him off.

"We just found out that while Loki was threatening German citizens someone was stealing Iridium from a Stuttgart lab." Fury said angrily. Kendra looked at him in confusion, not understanding why that would make him mad. "The man who stole it had bright blue eyes and a bow."

Kendra's heart stopped. "Clint was in Stuttgart? He helped Loki?" She asked in horror. Fury nodded, managing to give her an apologetic look even though he was still mad. Her heart picked up again, each beat painful. "My brother is helping take over the world." Kendra practically whispered. Natasha placed a comforting hand on Kendra's shoulder but the girl didn't notice. "We could have picked him up too. He was so close and we had no idea. My brother's still out there, unable to control his head." Her voice cracked and she bit down on her lip, trying to stop the tears that were once more in her eyes.

Fury didn't look at Kendra when he spoke but his voice rang with sincerity. "We'll get him back Agent Dagger." He told her. Kendra nodded and quickly wiped away her tears, feeling weak for letting people other than Clint and Natasha see them. "Agent Romanoff, please retrieve Doctor Banner from his lab. Agent Dagger, please go and tell the other two in the medical bay to come down here the second they're released. Thor, you and I have to talk." Fury said, switching back to his familiar Director ways.

"Yes sir." The two S.H.I.E.L.D agents said simultaneously. They exchanged amused smiles and "be careful" looks before heading off in opposite directions, one to gather a scary doctor and the other to talk to a few abnormal injured individuals.

**Oh wow I'm falling behind on updates. Here are my excuses: I'm now currently working on four different fictions, school is coming up, I've been finding some very lovely fics that have had me distracted, and I'm working on a new original work that I'm thinking of putting on FictionPress or Wattpad or Noveljoy for people to read. Those are my excuses, pick whichever one gets me out of the most trouble. Lol, anyways, I hope you enjoyed this short little chapter. Fans of my Daughter of Tony Stark story should check my profile cause I put up the sequel :D Chocolates for all!**


	10. A Quick Trip to Med Bay

It didn't take Kendra that much time to reach the medical bay. She knew the Hellicarrier backwards and forwards after all from exploring it with her brother. Kendra found Captain Rogers immediately, standing almost in the center of the room with half a million doctors around him. His face was bright red and he was stammering, trying to explain something to them. No doubt something about his enhanced body which was incredibly visible thanks to the incredibly tight uniform he had on. Kendra blushed at Steve's chest for a second before composing herself and walking over.

"Hey docs give him a little room!" Kendra said cheerfully as she approached. The doctors looked over and the second they recognized Kendra they backed off, not wanting to get yelled at by the infamous Dagger. Kendra smiled sweetly at them as she approached the Captain and smiled up at him the second she reached him. "I heard you got in a fight with a couple of gods. What was that like?" She asked him cheerfully.

"I don't exactly count them as gods ma'am. Just very strong men from another place." Steve said politely. He eyed the girl, wondering how she was doing. Her brother was still being held by Loki and yet here she was smiling and joking around. Steve wondered if she was really hurt or if she was just very good at hiding it.

Kendra rolled her eyes at the ma'am comment. "Captain Rogers you don't have to call me 'ma'am.' Dagger or Kendra is just fine with me." She told him, smiling. Steve opened his mouth to say something but Kendra waved him off. "I'm too young to be a ma'am. Please, just tone down the formal. I will too if it makes you feel better." She said.

Steve shifted his weight from foot to foot awkwardly. "My apologizes ma-Kendra. I'm just thought since you work for S.H.I.E.L.D..." Steve stopped talking, unsure how to continue. Steve had never had a problem dealing with kids, he got along with them pretty well, but Kendra wasn't _exactly_ a kid and she wasn't exactly normal either. She worked for S.H.I.E.L.D, a secret agency that apparently Howard had helped create. There was no doubt in Steve's head that she had killed (probably more than just once) and yet she still looked like a kid. A very confusing kid but a kid all the same.

"You thought I'd prefer to be treated like a grown up. A professional." Kendra finished though she wasn't entirely sure that's what he wanted to say.

"Yes." Steve lied.

"You also aren't sure exactly what type of kid I am. You don't even know if you can consider me a kid." Kendra said because she couldn't resist not saying it. Steve opened his mouth to protest but closed it again when he couldn't figure out what to say. Kendra took her chance to look around the medical bay for Tony. "Our billionaire seems to have run astray." Kendra said, smirking slightly. Of course Tony Stark wouldn't be in medical. Everyone had told her how stubborn he was and just how attached to his armor he was. More than likely he was down in the storage space checking on his suit. Kendra smiled a little and turned back to Steve. "Anyways, Cap, I came down here to retrieve you. Fury wants you back up in the control room." She said cheerfully. Steve just kind of stood there, still not sure of what to say. "Come on." Kendra said, grabbing his arm.

Kendra practically dragged Steve through the medical bay, telling anyone who approached to go bother the purple unicorn in the storage deck instead of her. Steve apologized when he passed by them which just made Kendra chuckle and pull him along a little quicker. Coulson had been sooo right when he told her about the great Steve Rogers, he was the best guy you'd ever meet. Speaking of Coulson...

"Phil!" Kendra said cheerfully when she spotted her handler outside the medical bay. She pulled Steve along but released him before flinging herself at Phil, enveloping him in a hug. "Hey Uncle Phil can you do something for me?" She asked sweetly, smiling up at Coulson like an innocent little kid.

Phil smiled down at her thought there was a cautious look in his eyes. The innocent act never worked on him and it actually put him on edge most of the time. The "Uncle Phil" thing didn't exactly help. She only called him that when something bad was going to happen or she really _really _wanted something. "What is it?" He asked, sighing a bit. Of course he would do whatever she asked of him.

Kendra grinned triumphantly up at him. "Will you go find Tony and bring him up to the Bridge? Pleeeeease?" She begged him.

Phil blinked in surprise. "Is that all?" He asked uncertainly, confused. Kendra nodded, still grinning, and he chuckled. "Let me guess, Fury told you to get him but he's not in medical and you don't want to go searching for him." He said. Kendra nodded again, this time a bit more reluctantly as if she didn't want to admit that she was being lazy. As if Phil didn't already know how lazy she was. As if he did know how lazy either Barton was. They'd once called him and made him come from halfway across the world to pick up and hand them the TV remote five feet from them because they didn't want to get up to get it. "Alright I'll get him and I'll get Fury off your back if he mentions it, okay?" Phil said, smiling.

"Thanks Uncle Phil." Kendra said brightly before releasing him. She gave him one last bright smile before taking off towards the Bridge, dragging along the world's first superhero as she did.


	11. Discussions in the Bridge

Natasha and Banner were already at the Bridge when Kendra pulled Steve in. Both glanced up at them but neither one said a thing and neither did Thor who was standing at the front of the table, looking thoughtful. Steve slipped out of Kendra's hold and made his way to the other side of the table, giving himself a great deal of space between him and everyone else. Kendra frowned at them and popped her hip out, placing her hand on her hip as she did. "Why's everybody so gloomy?" She asked jokingly, grinning at all of them.

"Fury's going now to interview Loki." Natasha answered flatly, pulling up the surveillance feed from Loki's prison room on three separate holograms. She sent one over to Steve and the she sent to a seat not far from Thor. Kendra frowned and walked over to it.

Loki was walking slowly around his cell, staring at every little detail with masked interest. Kendra felt intense white hot hate burn up inside her at the sight of him. He was a monster, the monster in her closet and underneath her bed. He'd taken her brother, the one person she could always count to be there, away from her. Thanks to this man she had no clue whether her brother was ever going to come back. Kendra wanted him dead more than she had ever wanted anything else."When do I get a swing at him?" She asked darkly, her eyes fixated on the supposed god.

Natasha shook her head. "You don't." She answered firmly.

Kendra's eyes snapped up to meet the deadly redhead's. There was an intense fire in her eyes too, an enraged fire that made the three men watching her shrink back a bit. Even Thor and he had seen many enraged women. "What?" Kendra practically spat out. Steve stared at her in surprise, mentally comparing her to the girl who had retrieved him from the medical bay. She was so different now and she looked...deadly. She looked like a killer. "I _deserve_ to take a crack at him. He kidnapped my brother!" Kendra said, close to shouting.

"I'll be handling the interrogation. You're too close to the situation." Natasha said calmly, not wanting to fight with the younger girl.

"So are you!" Kendra said. This time she did shout. Agents all around the room turned to look at them, surprised and curious by the shouting.

Natasha took a deep breath. If Kendra wanted to yell then fine, Natasha wouldn't play nice anymore. "You're not emotionally stable at the moment. You'll be easier to manipulate and you'll lose control of the situation quickly. We can't afford for that to happen. So you are staying as far away from Loki as possible." The deadly redhead stated coldly, her eyes locked on Kendra's. Her expression was sharp, cold, and uncaring. It pissed Kendra off.

"I can't just sit by and do nothing! Clint would be in there right now questioning the guy if our places were switched!" Kendra shouted.

"Well you're not Clint." Natasha said harshly. Kendra literally flinched at that comment and it took her a good minute to hide the pain that entered her eyes. Natasha had done that on purpose. She knew how much Kendra idolized her brother, how much she wanted to be just like him. Natasha had basically just dashed aside any hope that Kendra was anything like her brother to get Kendra to shut up. "You're going to do as you're told. You're going to stay away from Loki, understand?" Natasha asked, calm once more. Kendra stared at the deadly redhead, feeling too hurt to open her mouth and respond. "Understand?" Natasha asked again, her tone demanding an answer.

Kendra nodded numbly, sinking down into her seat. She pulled her legs up into the chair and pulled her knees to her chest before focusing all of her attention on the surveillance feed. No one said anything, almost afraid to in case one of the two women snapped at them. Natasha focused on her own feed while the three man stared at Kendra. Thor was slightly mad at the young girl for obviously wanting to hurt his brother but he could not help feeling empathy for her. She was deadly loyal to her brother just as he was to his. She wanted nothing more than to keep her brother safe as he did. It was something he could relate to, despite the fact that his brother had caused her brother to disappear.

Bruce was worried for the girl more than anything. This was not the lifestyle any child should be subjected to. Killing people, keeping secrets, being trained to have no emotion...it had to be doing a number on the girl's head. And then they wouldn't even let her interrogate the man who had kidnapped her brother. Bruce frowned slightly, thinking that if the girl was willing to kill for this organization she deserved at least a chance to talk to the god.

Steve was, more or less, still surprised by how drastically the girl's personality had changed.

Kendra was so out of it though, drowning in her emotions, that she didn't notice any of their looks. She didn't notice anything really until suddenly the sound of rushing wind filled the air. She instantly snapped back into reality and looked around to see if one of the windows had been busted. It took Fury's voice ringing out above the wind for her to realize that the sound was coming from the screen in front of her. She focused her attention on it and saw Loki peering at the empty space beneath the glass cage. "You get how that works?!" Fury asked. Kendra cursed, she hadn't listened to what Fury had said before then. It couldn't have been too important though judging by Fury's tone. He was threatening right now, not saying much else. He pushed a button, closing the gap beneath Loki's cage and stopping the sound of rushing window. Fury gestured to Loki. "Ant." He gestured to the control panel. "Boot."

Kendra let out a loud snort, unable to stop herself. Unfortunately she didn't get to be amused for long. Loki was laughing and Kendra knew just from her small experience with him that that was a very bad thing. "It's an impressive cage." Loki admitted, grinning in amusement. Kendra felt a growl build up in her throat and she quickly swallowed it down, not wanting to seem animalistic. "Not built, I think, for me." Loki said knowingly.

Subtly, Kendra peeked up at Doctor Banner to judge his reaction. Of course he understood that the cage had been built for him but it didn't seem to bother him OR, at least, it didn't surprise him. Kendra could understand though why he wasn't surprised. He knew how much of a threat he was, he knew how people felt about him and what they thought of him. "Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury said, drawing Kendra's attention back to the feed.

"Oh I've heard." Loki said. He turned and stared up at the camera watching his every move, giving them a full view of his face. Kendra felt her hands clench into lethal fists as she stared down at his image. Her nails dug into her palms painfully but she ignored it, her hatred making the pain dull. "A mindless beast makes play he's still a man." Loki said almost mockingly. Kendra once more looked up at Banner and was not surprised to see him already locked in eye contact with Natasha. He seemed a little more agitated now but not much. Kendra couldn't help but admire his control. "How desperate are you that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" Loki asked, turning back to the Director.

"How desperate am I?" Fury asked, anger leaking into his voice. "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill cause it's fun." Kendra felt a cold chill race up and down her spine. Fury sounded...terrifying. Worse than any time he had ever barked an order at her. Kendra didn't think she had ever heard him this furious before. Kendra searched Loki's face for any sign of fear but saw none. For a brief second she admired his bravery but quickly she was consumed by hate again. She hoped they got the chance to drop him out of the sky because nothing would give her more pleasure than seeing his shocked face before he plummeted towards the ground. "You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did." Kendra frowned, thinking Fury's tactic wasn't the best one. He had just admitted their desperation. Oh well, at least he had tagged a threat onto the end.

Loki grinned and Kendra almost started grinding her teeth together at the sight. "Ooh, it burns you to have come so close." Loki said mockingly, still grinning away. "To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share." Kendra frowned deeply. Loki was implying something but she didn't know exactly what. She knew the ending was a jab at Tony Stark but what about the rest? It felt like more than just a mean joke. It felt like Loki was trying to tell them Fury was hiding something, something big. That wasn't surprising, after all Fury _was_ the Director of an agency built on secrets, but it still wasn't good. "And then to be reminded what real power is." Loki said.

Kendra snorted, loudly. "Real power, right." She chuckled out almost mockingly, shaking her head. Natasha gave her a look that said to keep her opinions to herself, at least while Thor was around, but Kendra chose to ignore it.

"Well let me know if 'Real Power' wants a magazine or something." Fury said as he walked away from Loki's cage. Kendra grinned wickedly at that, glad that someone else was mocking the god.

Natasha and Steve's screens went black but Kendra kept hers up. Loki was looking up at the camera again, looking directly at it as if he knew someone was definitely watching. Kendra couldn't help a smug smile from appearing on her lips. Mister Big and Bad was in a cage now and it pleased her a helluva lot more than it should have.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner said jokingly.

Kendra chuckled. "Oh yeah, definitely." She said, glancing up at him briefly to smile at him. He nodded to her which made her chuckle a little more before looking back down at the image of Loki before her. A shudder ran down her back when she saw he was smiling knowingly now, smiling as if he knew it was her watching him. She shut the feed off immediately. "I hate him." She grumbled furiously, pulling her legs even closer to her chest. It hurt but oh well, she needed something to hold.

Everyone heard Kendra despite her lowered voice but no one said anything, not wanting to upset or anger her. Steve chose to end the silence that followed her statement, uncomfortable with it. "Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" The super soldier said, looking at the golden haired god.

Thor didn't even look over when he replied. "He has an army called the Chitauri." He said almost robotically, like he didn't even realize he was saying it. Kendra watched him curiously. Obviously the video of his brother had put him into deep thought. Either that or he was just slow. Kendra kind of doubted that a freaking god was slow though so, yeah, more than likely he was thinking. "They're not of Asgard or any world known." Thor said, turning to face all of them now. Kendra curiosity spiked at those words. Exactly how many life filled worlds were out there? Thor took a few steps forward, bringing himself closer to everyone. "He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." He told them.

"An army. From outer space." Steve asked. The army part he sounded familiar, almost okay, with but the idea of them coming from outer space seemed to confuse him. That wasn't surprising really. Even Kendra who had always been a bit of an alien believer thought it was shocking. Sure the movies showed it but come on, who actually expected that to really seriously happen in real life?

"So he's building another portal." Bruce said, drawing the group's attention to himself. "That's what he needs Eric Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor asked. Kendra quickly did a mental recap of the New Mexico file and all of her conversations with Selvig. They weren't supposed to discuss the incident of course or Thor but Selvig had accidentally let slip a few things about the god. He'd confirmed what the file said at the very least, he had found Thor along with two others and sheltered him while he was on earth. He also got him out of S.H.I.E.L.D custody. Kendra smiled a little at that though she was still surprised they'd let the huge muscular man go so easily. Clint had told her all about it (she'd been gone on a mission at the time) and he said the guy had taken down so many S.H.I.E.L.D agents that it had made them look absolutely pathetic.

"He's an astrophysicist." Bruce explained, not knowing Thor's connection to Selvig.

"He's a friend." Thor replied a little curtly, obviously concerned.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell." Natasha said, speaking up for the first time since before they'd watch Loki. "Along with one of ours." For a second her voice and face betrayed her completely. You could see her concern, her fear, her hurt so easily it was almost pathetic. But then Natasha saw the way Kendra's eyes were shining with hard held back tears and she steeled her nerves, reminding herself that she wasn't the only one who cared about Clint.

Kendra took a deep breath, knowing that since she was the only one present who had dealt with people cast under Loki's spell she should explain it. "The spell seems to only effect what side they're on. Their personalities and their knowledge seemed to hold steady. Basically, the spell puts them on Loki's side and takes out any sympathy they have for their old side." Kendra said, not looking at any of them. She didn't want to. Right then all she really wanted to do was go into Loki's cage and punch him in the face.

Steve shifted slightly in his seat. "I want to know why Loki let us take him." He said, pulling the conversation in another direction. "He's not leaving an army from here." Steve said, glancing back at Bruce as if to make sure the doctor was paying attention.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Bruce said, a tad blunt. Kendra frowned at that. She liked Doctor Banner well enough despite only roughly ten minutes of conversation but she didn't like that opinion. She thought the only thing worth focusing on at that moment _was_ Loki. He knew everything about what was happening after all so why shouldn't they be questioning him. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him." Kendra smirked, okay she had to agree with that.

"Have care how you speak." Thor said warningly, taking a step forward. Kendra tensed though not noticeably, ready to spring into action to stop the god if he decided to attack anyone. She didn't know how well she'd hold up against a god but that wouldn't stop her from punching Thor in the face if he tried anything. "Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard and he is my brother." Kendra slackened slightly. He sounded so loyal and it struck something in her, possibly understanding. She sounded the same way when she defended her brother. Thor still loved his brother despite everything. Kendra had a feeling that if she was in Thor's situation she would still love her brother too but she refused to admit it.

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha said flatly, looking up at Thor. Kendra winced slightly at the look on the redhead's face. She was giving that cold "I might kill you" look that frightened _everyone_.

"He's adopted." Thor said, seeming to say the first thing that came to mind.

Kendra burst out laughing. She covered her eyes with her hand and just laughed until her sides and face were hurting. When she finally managed to calm herself down and uncover her eyes she noticed practically everyone giving her a variety of looks. Thor seemed confused, Maria a tad annoyed, Natasha more or less worried, Steve slightly frightened, and Bruce kind of a mix of everything except annoyed. "Oh come on!" Kendra said loudly, slightly upset by their reactions. "That was funny!" She said defensively, gesturing to Thor.

"Inappropriate timing Agent Dagger." Maria said, giving the much younger agent a pointed look.

"Just trying to lighten the mood Auntie Hill." Kendra said jokingly, smiling innocently at the older woman. "After all, life's_ fantastic_." She grinned wildly as she sung out the word. Maria's eye twitched slightly, she hated any mention of the Barbie song no matter how slight.

"Agent Dagger, start conducting yourself with at least a mild form of professionalism or you will be leaving the Bridge." Maria said, using her most authoritative tone. She knew jokes and other such things were Kendra's way of coping with things but she couldn't help being slightly annoyed by it. This was one of the few times seriousness was a necessity and Kendra needed to understand.

Kendra frowned deeply, anger stirring in her. She took a deep breath and silently reminded herself that she was not allowed to blow up on the older agent. "Whatever you say ma'am." She practically had to force the words out but she managed it. Maria nodded, accepting that that was the best she was going to get from the girl.

After a minute or so of uncomfortable silence Bruce cleared his throat, indicating that he was going to pick the conversation back up. "I think it's about the mechanics." He said, restarting the discussion. "Iridium. What did they need the Iridium for?" He asked the whole group.

"It's a stabilizing agent." Everyone instantly turned their head to look at the infamous Tony Stark as he strolled in. The genius paused for a moment to finish his talk with Coulson, on his cellist no less which made Kendra smile, before focusing back on them. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." Kendra flinched slightly at the mention of the incident, the image of her brother with glowing Tesseract eyes looking back at her popping to the front of her mind. She pushed the image aside quickly, along with a few tears, and focused on Tony as he walked towards Thor. "No hard feelings Point Break, you got a mean swing." He said and hit Thor's arm twice, walking by as he did. "Also it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants." Tony said as he approached Fury's half circle of monitors. He stopped in front of them and faced the S.H.I.E.L.D crew in front of him. "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails." Kendra smiled at the joke as the S.H.I.E.L.D crew looked up at Tony like was insane. "That man is playing Galaga!" Tony said practically out of the blue, pointing towards one of the agents. Kendra just managed to catch a glimpse of the video game before the agent minimized it and she snorted. "Thought we wouldn't notice but we did." Tony said, looking at the monitors before him. He placed a hand over his eye and looked a little confused. "How does Fury even see these?" He asked, turning around to look at the people behind him. Kendra had a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter but it wasn't working too well.

"He turns." Maria said, obviously not amused at all by Tony.

Tony turned and faced the monitors again. "That sounds exhausting." He said, walking up to two of the monitors. He started messing with things on Fury's monitors which Kendra was pretty sure he was _not_ allowed to do. "The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily." Tony said, going back to the main conversation. Kendra flinched noticeably at the mention of her brother and buried her face in her knees for a brief second, willing herself to keep it together. "Only major component he needs is a power source. Something to," Kendra looked up in time to see Tony hit his hands together in a kind of rhythm, "kick start the cube." Tony finished up.

Maria's annoyance with Tony was not apparent except to Kendra and Natasha who had spent enough time with the woman to recognize her every emotion by just a few things. "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria asked the genius.

"Last night." Tony said, deadpanned. Kendra's eyes widened slightly and she felt her fangirl admiration for the man kick in again and she shrunk down a bit in her seat, embarrassed by her childishness. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory paper." Tony said, looking around the room for any recognition at his words. Kendra knew what he was referring to but she didn't say so, she could never understand all the freaking science even if her life depended on it. "Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked, holding his hands out grandly.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked, cutting off Tony's mostly uninterrupted all over the place speech.

"He'd have to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Bruce said, answering for the other genius.

Tony opened his arms again and nodded, like he was telling them all "see, this is how you're supposed to function. Genius life is awesome." He didn't actually say that though of course. Instead he said something else that Kendra found hard to understand and boring. "Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." He said, slowly walking over to Banner.

"Well if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." Bruce responded easily.

"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony said, gesturing to Doctor Banner.

Steve turned to look at the rest of them, confusion written across his face. "Is that what just happened?" He asked, uncertain.

Kendra gave the super soldier a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry Captain, I didn't understand it either. Geniuses have their own secret language us regular folk can never understand." She told him, joking but only a little. Seriously, geniuses had their own freaking language.

Tony smirked a little at Kendra's comment and Bruce smiled slightly before their focus went back to each other. Tony offered his hand and Bruce took it immediately. They shook hands and Kendra could just see the mutual respect on their faces. "It's good to meet you Doctor Banner." Tony said sincerely. "Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster."

Bruce seemed unsure on what to say but finally he said a simple "Thanks."

"Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube." Fury said, entering the room in a storm of black leather. Kendra still didn't know how he could wear that all the time. She'd worn a leather jacket during the summer once and had nearly gotten a heatstroke. "I was hoping you might join him." Fury told Stark.

"I'd start with that stick of his." Steve said, adding in his two cents. Kendra smirked, Steve's description of the scepter was a lot better than Fury's. She still had to discuss with him how the thing was _not_ a spear. "It maybe magical but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon." The super soldier said.

"I don't know about that but it is powered by the cube." Fury said. That seemed to interest Thor because he turned to stare fully at the Director. Either that or Thor just finally recognized Fury as an authoritative figure even though Fury was always giving off a Head Honcho vibe. "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Kendra winced slightly at the mention of the mind control but she also smiled slightly, Fury had just complimented her brother.

"Monkeys?" Thor said uncertainly. "I don't understand."

"I do!" Steve said almost excitedly, pointing at Director Fury. "I-I understood that reference." The super soldier said. He sounded a little awkward now but he looked proud of himself, like he'd just won the lottery.

Kendra wiggled her toes in her shoes. "I am getting you a cookie the second I get a chance." She told the soldier, grinning at him. He was such a puppy it was getting ridiculous.

"Shall we play doctor?" Tony asked his new colleague, basically giving up on the group discussion in favor of a much more interesting one.

Bruce gestured towards the exit as if to tell Tony to lead the way. "Let's play sir." He said and the two geniuses walked out, both of them looking eager to go do science.

The conversation didn't pick back up after the two geniuses left and it made Kendra frown. She needed a distraction from her thoughts and no one was providing it anymore. She got up quickly, her mind buzzing as it started to pull up the thoughts she desperately wanted to ignore. "Director Fury do you need anything?" She asked, purposely talking just a bit too fast to show Fury she really needed to either have an assignment or get the heck out of there.

"Not at the moment. Check on Stark and Banner within a few hours though, I want an update on their progress." Fury told her.

"Okay. I'll be...around." Kendra said vaguely. She saluted quickly before practically running from the room, catching Phil giving her a concerned look just before she passed through the doors.


	12. Working Out and Talking with a Captain

The workout equipment was not meant to be used as targets but Kendra didn't really care. The actual targets were not out and she had no clue where they were stored so it wasn't like she could go get them. So instead she used the equipment. Her knives sunk deep into most of it but she managed to keep her throwing stars from lodging themselves too deeply into the many different surfaces she was throwing them at. Her darts were still tucked away, being saved for later when she really needed them. They weren't specially made just to be used for random practice. She could use the duds if she really needed to practice with them but she didn't need to so they stayed put up.

Kendra stood on her tiptoes high up on the tallest balance beam. Barely taking a breath she cartwheeled across the length of the balance beam, throwing two knives as she did. She flipped off the beam once she reached the end, throwing two more knives as she flipped. She stuck the landing perfect and looked towards where her knives had flown. The first two were lodged into a punching bag halfway across the gym, one above the other, while the other two were hilt deep in the pommel horse across from the beams. They were both directly beneath the handles. Kendra grinned, they had pierced the exact spots she had wanted them to.

Smirking a little, Kendra ran forward slightly before going into an impressive floor routine that landed her directly in front of the pommel horse. She wrenched her knives out of the apparatus and tucked them into their sheaths, strapping them in so that they didn't fall out when she did more gymnastics. It had been a while since she employed this much gymnastics and it had her missing her old acrobatic routine. The one she used to perform before going into her knife throwing act with her old mentor Swordsman. He hadn't taught her how to use a bow like Clint. He'd stuck with knives for her, said they made her seem more deadly, more thrilling, than a bow. He was all about the show, Swordsman. Kendra hated him.

Kendra shook her head, she wasn't supposed to be remembering the old days.

After using yet another impressive routine Kendra reached her other two knives. She was just about to pull them out when she spotted Captain America standing not far off, watching her with a stunned look on his face. Kendra smiled at him. "How long you been standin' there Cap'ain?" She asked cheerfully, some of her old way of speaking slipping in. She'd spoken a lot like Barney for a long time, mostly carney all the time, but over the years she'd switched to talking like Clint. The carney came back though every once in a while when she was remembering the old times. Like she wasn't supposed to be doing. Kendra shook her head again, trying to shake away the thoughts in her head.

Steve's face flushed a light red. "Long enough to see your last four throws." He admitted sheepishly.

Kendra kept smiling as she pulled her two other knives out of the punching bag. Immediately, sand started to pour out of the holes. "Didja enjoy my performance?" She asked, carefully wiping sand off the blade of her knives.

"It was impressive." Steve admitted.

"I know." Kendra said cheerfully, tucking her knives back into their respectful sheaths. Steve frowned slightly and Kendra did too, bothered by that frown. "So what brings you down here? Fury send ya?" She asked, flicking two knives out of the hidden spots inside her sleeves. Steve watched, somewhat mesmerized, as she spun the knives in her hands like it was the easiest thing in the world.

"No, Fury hasn't ordered anything." Steve said, still watching the knives.

Kendra frowned again. "What then? Not that I mind you bein' here it just seems like you're checkin' up on me and I don't need no one lookin' after me." She said as politely as she could.

Steve looked at her curiously. "Are you talking like that on purpose?" He asked, seeming a bit confused.

Kendra's frown deepened. "No it's subconscious. I used to talk like that when I was younger." She explained, immediately switching back into her normal way of speaking.

"You sounded kind of western. Where'd you grow up?" Steve asked.

Kendra knew the super soldier was just being polite so she forced herself not to get mad. Here she was trying not to remember the old days and he was making it hard as hell. "Spent three years in Northern Iowa. Two in the Western Iowa. Then I spent two years traveling. Then another five years traveling." She said, mentally doing the math.

Steve looked at her in surprise. "You had a busy childhood." He said.

Kendra let out a humorless chuckle and started walking back towards the beams. "Oh yeah, real busy. I barely had any time to be a kid." She mumbled the last part under her breath, not wanting the super soldier to hear her. "You ever do gymnastics Captain Rogers?" She asked, this time loud enough for him to hear. She reached the beams and climbed up onto them with ease, her muscles just barely straining to lift her up. They wouldn't be at all but she had just had to do that second floor routine. God she was such a show off even when it was just herself in a room.

"No, just a bit of boxing and even then not really much of that. Not many people can go up against me." Steve admitted, watching as she walked easily across the balance beams. He held his breath as she leapt from one to the next, afraid that she'd fall, but relaxed when he saw that she was completely and totally capable of not getting herself hurt. He was worried for her, her brother was M.I.A but she was acting like she was perfectly fine. And exactly how young was this girl? He hadn't really thought about it before, thinking that a government agency wouldn't hire children, but she did seem awfully young for a government agent. "Miss Barton how old are you?" Steve asked, surprising himself by asking it.

Kendra smirked slightly, she had been waiting for him to ask. She frowned a little too though. Miss Barton. It didn't sound right to her. She'd only been called Miss Barton a few times in her life and she'd always raised such a fit about it that no one ever called her that again. She hated being called Miss Barton. It sounded like what her mom would have been called if she lived and their father died. It almost sent a chill down her spine. "I'm sixteen." She answered before spinning rapidly, one footed, on the balance beam. She was careful not to fall, not wanting to get hurt. "You should do gymnastics Captain Rogers. I imagine you would be amazing at it. You've got the muscles for it and the endurance." Kendra said, still spinning.

Steve did a double take. "You're sixteen?" He asked, his voice laced with shock. Kendra stopped spinning so that she could look him straight in the eye and nod. "So...S.H.I.E.L.D employs children?" He asked.

Kendra had to keep her sympathy off her face. He was so innocent to everything, so oblivious to how much the world had changed. Back in his day kids working as soldiers was unthought of but now...well at least she wasn't like kids over in Africa or anything. At least she had been given the choice to become a killer. "I'm the first one in roughly fifty years. I'm a special case though." She explained to him.

"That's not right." Steve said, anger starting to leak into his voice. "You're supposed to be in school. You're supposed to be making friends and getting good grades. You're supposed to be worrying about report cards not helping stop a madman with a magic stick." He said angrily.

Kendra let out a short humorless laugh. "Captain even if I had never joined S.H.I.E.L.D I would never have had that type of life." She told him. She could hear pain and sadness creeping into her voice and she hated it. She wanted to leave it at that, stop talking and go back to her gymnastics, but she couldn't. The old wounds had been unintentionally opened and everything was rushing back. All the memories Kendra had locked away. All the bad things she had never wanted to think of again. Clint was always there to make sure they didn't come out but not anymore. He was missing. "Life before S.H.I.E.L.D was not good for me Captain. I had an abusive father and an uncaring mother. At three when my brothers explained to me we were orphaned I didn't cry. My brothers told me I looked relieved." Kendra was shaking but she didn't notice it. She had shut her eyes before even speaking and she was far away, back in the past. "I spent two years in an orphanage. We left when someone tried to adopt me, when someone tried to break us up. Then I spent two years working at a carnival, learning acrobatics and how to throw knives. Two great years until my mentor nearly killed Clint. Then a few months later my oldest brother left us forever and we had to leave the circus cause we couldn't go back without our brother." Kendra wiped furiously at her face, hating the tears that were rolling down her face. She was breaking down and she hated it. She needed her music. She needed to get to her room and blare her music so no one would hear her cry. But she could barely move now. She was half lying on the balance beam she was on, hunched over as she started shaking with held back sobs. "We spent five years on the streets! We did jobs for people. Fuck, we killed for people! But the whole damn time Clint was fucking there! He was fucking _there_! Even when S.H.I.E.L.D came along he didn't leave me! And now he's fucking gone! And I don't know if he's fucking coming back! And fuck S.H.I.E.L.D saved us but I don't know if they can save my brother this time and fuck I just-!" Kendra finally broke. She started sobbing and rolled off the balance beam, landing hard on the mat below. She landed on her back, hitting her head against the mat when she did. It hurt but she ignored it, in too much pain to care.

Steve didn't know what to say or do. He'd never had to deal with someone crying before. Still, he figured he had to do something. It was his fault the girl was crying after all so he walked over to her and kneeled down beside her. He'd seen people hold crying people before so maybe he was supposed to do that. "Come here." He said gently, holding his arms open.

Kendra looked up at him for a second, her eyes filled with distrust for the briefest second before she fell into his arms. She started sobbing into his shoulder, her whole body shaking. "I want my brother." She sobbed out, hating herself for being so weak. Clint wouldn't be crying if their places were reversed. He'd be doing something, he'd be trying his hardest to get her back. But what the hell was she supposed to do?! She had no leads on where he might be and there was no way she could get into Loki's prison room, there were no vents after all and she wouldn't be allowed to just walk in. Kendra hated it, more than anything she hated it.

"Captain Rogers? Agent Dagger?"

They both looked up, meeting the eyes of a concerned and slightly shocked Phil. Kendra was out of Steve's arms and in Phil's in a second. He paused for a second, unaccustomed to a crying Kendra, then wrapped his arms around her tightly. He shushed her, rubbing her back gently as she cried. "It's okay Kendra. It's okay. We're going to get him back. I promise." Phil said gently, trying to comfort the poor girl. He made eye contact with Steve and nodded his thanks to him before gesturing slightly with his head for the Captain to leave. Steve nodded and silently left the room, his hatred for Loki growing as he heard the girl's continued sobs as he walked away.


	13. Uncle Phil is the Best

It took Kendra a long time to stop crying. When she did she found herself sitting on the gym floor with Phil's arms still wrapped tightly around her. She felt completely drained and she leaned her head against Phil's shoulder, wiping at her puffy red eyes. Phil rocked her slightly, remembering the few times he'd seen Clint comforting Kendra. "Have you tried taking your medication Kendra?" Phil asked gently, not wanting to hurt her feelings but needing to know.

Kendra shook her head, sniffling. "I didn't want to. Clint doesn't take his unless he's so messed up he can't get out of bed." She said, her voice hoarse from crying.

Phil frowned at that. All agents at one point or another suffered from some mental problem, whether it was PTSD or depression, but the Bartons suffered more than most. They had entered S.H.I.E.L.D with issues and though those had been resolved before their first missions they'd resurfaced after a few traumatic missions. Clint had PTSD and both of them suffered from occasional depression. They were given pills to help them pull themselves out of their depression but they rarely took it, not wanting to rely on the pills to fix themselves. Phil understood their want to not rely on the medication but he thought that sometimes they really needed to take it. Like right now. Kendra was not like this, not ever. She needed the pills, just this once.

"Kendra, you need to take them. Just until we get your brother back." Phil told her, sounding concerned for her wellbeing which he was.

"Clint doesn't take them and he wouldn't if he were here." Kendra grumbled angrily. Phil sighed but didn't say anything. He knew Kendra idolized her older brother and did as much as she could to be like him and he also knew that no amount of talking would convince her to do something her brother wouldn't. "He wouldn't be fucking crying either." Kendra grumbled out.

Phil hit Kendra's arm lightly, barely tapping it really in case he accidentally hurt her. "You know he'd hate you talking like that." He told her, frowning slightly. Kendra smiled a little and sniffled sadly, rubbing at one of her eyes as she did. "And he would be. He'd be yelling, screaming, and cussing but he'd be crying while he was doing it." Phil told her, his voice much gentler than before.

Kendra laughed despite herself. "I don't believe you but that was kind of funny." She told him, hiccupping slightly.

Phil smiled slightly but it was a sad smile. A thoughtful looked appeared on his face. "He did it once." He said, rubbing her back again. Kendra looked up at him, surprised as heck. "That first mission when you didn't come back on time he was ready to get on a jet and fly to where he thought you were within a nanosecond. We had to lock him in a furniture free room with no access to the ventilation system. He tried to break down the door while he was practically screaming at us to let him go get his baby sister. We had to keep him in there for a whole day and about halfway through he started crying. He'll never admit it if you ask but he was." Phil told her, looking at the wall instead of her. Another agent had had to go to as her handler for that mission, he'd been fatally injured and in a hospital at the time. He'd been so angry with himself when he heard she was missing. He knew if he had been there she wouldn't have gone missing. Phil wasn't about to tell her that though. She needed to be comforted not give out comfort which was exactly what she would do if he told her that.

"Clint cried?" Kendra asked quietly, shocked.

"Yes, he did. Don't tell him I told you though, he won't be too happy." Phil said, giving her a small smile.

Kendra smirked. "I won't tell him if you tell Fury I took the pills when he asks." She told him.

Phil chuckled, his smile growing. "How did you know he was going to ask? I haven't talked to him about the pills yet." He asked.

"I am a highly trained, high ranking, highly skilled, badass fucking agent of a secret agency. I think I know the basics of my boss's personality." Kendra said, her smirk a thousand times snarkier now that she wasn't on the verge of falling back into tears. Phil chuckled and Kendra's smirk turned into a smile. "I know, surprising right? Fury has a personality!" She said jokingly which just made him laugh. Kendra smiled until she suddenly realized how fatherly Phil was holding her. Her own dad had never held her like this, she knew that. Her brothers had told her, he never touched her once. They wouldn't let him. He'd get drunk and mad, see her, and they'd mad scramble to get her out of the room before he could take his anger out on her. She'd never had a dad and barely had a father. Kendra thought briefly that maybe Phil would be a pretty cool father figure but then she shut the thought out of her head. Her last father had been so horrible, replacing him with Phil would probably jinx the guy. "I think I'm good now Phil. You can let me go, I'm stable." Kendra told her handler.

"You're never stable." Phil said jokingly as he released her. Kendra gracefully spun to her feet, grabbing her handler by the back of the shirt and hauling him upwards as she did. Phil chuckled as he was pulled up but didn't protest, just allowed her to do as she liked since he didn't mind her antics. "Weren't you supposed to check on Stark and Banner?" Phil asked once he was standing.

Kendra nodded then looked down at the many very visible weapons she had on. She'd changed into a modified cat suit, modified as in shorts instead of pants and short sleeves with huge kickass boots, and strapped on every weapon of hers she could find. "I'll have to change. 'Stark doesn't like weapons.'" She said, giving her handler a slightly mocking look.

Phil snorted slightly. "Kendra I doubt your weapons will bother him now. We're on a warship." He pointed out.

"Hmmm, good point." Kendra said, grinning up at her handler. She gave him a quick but tight hug. "Thanks Uncle Phil." She said almost too quickly for him to hear. She practically ran out of the room after that, fleeing from the weak emotions that she hoped she was leaving behind in the gym.


	14. A Brief Discussion in the Lab

Kendra passed by Steve on her way to the lab but they didn't say anything to each other. She simply nodded her thanks to him and he nodded back, acknowledging her thanks. He looked distracted, almost angry, and Kendra wondered what was wrong. She came up with several possibilities by the time she walked into the lab, one of which was that someone had burnt an American flag.

"Hello Mister Stark, Doctor Banner, are we making any progress?" Kendra asked the two men cheerfully.

"We're working diligently." Stark said, looking through a small silver bag for something. Kendra's eyebrows shot up when he pulled out a blueberry, grinned at it, and popped it in his mouth. "Perfect blueberry." He explained when he saw her expression. Kendra nodded slowly, still a bit confused as to why and how he had blueberries. "Anyways, we're running tests on the scepter and we're sweeping for the Tesseract's signature now." He said, pointing towards a piece of technology that Kendra had no clue how to use.

Kendra nodded again then smiled. "So, are you having fun yet?" She asked cheerfully.

Tony smirked slightly and grabbed a small handful of blueberries out of the bag. "It's been interesting but not fun _yet_. I'm sure something will happen soon though that'll change that." He said before popping the whole handful of berries into his mouth.

Kendra grinned and turned to Doctor Banner. Not surprisingly, Bruce had separated himself slightly from Tony and was typing something up on the only on a desk computer in the room. It was probably code or something. "What about you Doctor Banner?" She asked, hoping to get him talking.

Bruce looked up, startled by the fact that she was choosing to talk to him. Not overly startled though, she had been trying to talk to him earlier after all. "It's...not going as badly as I thought." He said carefully, thinking of how he had expected to be in a cage by then. Good thing his cage was occupied or else he probably would be working in there.

"Well, that's good I suppose." Kendra said, giving him a soft kind smile. He smiled back a little before going back to his work, picking up where he left up with ease. Kendra watched him for a second before she felt eyes burning into her back. She turned and saw Tony staring at her. "Yes Mister Stark?" She asked politely, smiling at him.

"When you said you had an obsession with sharp objects I thought you were just trying to be tough." Tony said, eyeing the many different weapons on the girl. Bruce peeked up over his glasses and took note of the weapons as well, a little unnerved by how many of them there were. A girl her age should not be that comfortable with that many weapons on her.

Kendra laughed at that. "My apologies Mister Stark but no. I'm an expert knife thrower and the weapons you see on me aren't even half of the ones I own." She said, shrugging nonchalantly like it was no big deal.

Bruce's eyebrows shot up but Tony just looked increasingly angry. "You've killed people haven't you?" Tony asked, his voice carefully measured so he wouldn't sound too mad.

Kendra winced slightly. She knew exactly how mad Tony was and it kind of hurt to be angering someone she admired. Plus, coming from him it seemed like such a bad thing. She knew it wasn't a bad thing though. The people she'd killed were horrible people, child traffickers and killers trying to start up world wars. She'd been proud to kill off those disgusting villainous people but hearing someone else outside of the agency talk about it... "Yes Mister Stark I have." Kendra answered calmly, not letting her voice betray her.

"You're sixteen." Tony said furiously.

"I am." Kendra said and nodded.

"You told me you weren't a child soldier." Bruce said, earning their attention.

Kendra nodded again, buying herself a bit of time so she could think of a good answer. "I'm not exactly a child, Doctor Banner. I'm nearly a legal adult." She said, trying to sound like an adult as she spoke. She didn't exactly pull it off though, sounding more like a slightly sassy teen more than a grown up.

Bruce frowned angrily. "You're still a child. You should be in school." He told her.

It was so much like the conversation Kendra and Steve had that the girl could barely stand it. She forced pain to become anger quickly, not wanting to cry again. "I'm sorry to inform you of this gentlemen but I _chose_ to be trained by S.H.I.E.L.D. They were just going to provide me safety and a place for my brother to raise me but I wanted to help people. So I chose to be trained. I chose to kill." She told them, her voice hardened by only slightly held back anger.

"So they brainwashed you into thinking that killing was justified." Tony said, frowning deeply.

"No!" Kendra snapped, losing control for just a second. She winced, recognizing her mistake, but was still pissed off. She'd killed before S.H.I.E.L.D recruited her and her brother and the people she'd killed then...well they didn't all deserve it. S.H.I.E.L.D didn't have to brainwash her into killing. Kendra shut her eyes and started counting backwards from ten, breathing deeply as she did. "Look," she said once she was done counting, "I know S.H.I.E.L.D has its issues but I make sure my targets deserve death. On my first mission I killed a man who was trafficking women to be used as sex slaves. I killed him and a whole building of men to free hundreds of girls. So no, they didn't brainwash me. I find the killing completely and utterly justified. I'm fine with going to Hell to cause I save people and that's worth it." She said, keeping her eyes closed so she wouldn't see their expressions. "I'm leaving now. Just wanted to check in. Doctor Banner, you're an amazing scientist and once again I'm sorry you're stuck here. Mister Stark, you're awesome. Have a good day." Kendra said calmly. She turned around and walked out of the room, never meeting their eyes as she did.

Neither of the men spoke for a few minutes, watching the girl through the windows until they couldn't see her anymore. Finally Bruce decided to speak up. "I feel bad for her." He said, getting right to the point.

Tony nodded and walked over to the nearest hanging monitor. "I was given her file but it was vague. Said her and her brother lived on the streets for years and had 'prior experience before recruitment.' I just said the brainwash thing to see what she would say." He said, looking at the monitor with a slight bit of distaste. He was glad Agent Dagger hadn't noticed it, the program he was using to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D's system was displayed up on the monitor. He hoped up onto Bruce's work station, swinging the monitor around so that he could sit and look at it. "I think the Bartons might have killed prior to joining S.H.I.E.L.D. She would have said that the man was her first kill, not that she killed him on her first mission, if she hadn't killed before." Tony said.

"I wonder what her childhood must have been like." Bruce said, his eyebrows scrunched together in thought and concern.

"Horrible." Tony stated simply, nodding slightly. "Now, want to read S.H.I.E.L.D's top secret files with me?" He asked, pointing to the monitor and the program slowly hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D.

Bruce smiled slightly. "I suppose." He said, shrugging slightly. Tony grinned and they both turned to look at the monitor, watching as the code broke through S.H.I.E.L.D's firewalls.


	15. The Helicarrier Goes Boom

Kendra leaned against her bedroom door, taking deep calming breaths as she tried not to either break her hand punching the wall or break down. Cursing loudly she walked across her room to her bathroom and snatched the photo of her and her brothers off the bathroom mirror. "I swear to God, someday I'm going to die and it's going to be one of your faults." She told the little images of her brothers. She frowned at her own words. "Dammit Barney, it probably won't be you. You're probably dead. Great, that means it's gonna be you Clint. You're gonna be so sad when you get me killed." Kendra said, rubbing her forehead with her knuckles as a headache started to form. "You better show the fuck up real soon Clint or I'm going to get seriously pissed." She told her brother's picture, poking it as if that was going to get her point across even more.

Immediately after she said that the Helicarrier shook with a huge explosion.

"Shit." Kendra groaned, picking herself up off the ground. Her legs and palms were bleeding, having gotten scraped up in the fall, but she ignored the blood as if it was nothing. She reached up and turned on her comm link, surprised that she still had the earpiece in but glad she did. "Status report needed. What the hell was that?" She asked whoever was listening.

"Agent Dagger get to the lab immediately and guard the spear." Fury said immediately, sounding like he was in pain.

Kendra's eyebrows shot up in shock but she nodded anyways. "It's not a spear Director Fury!" She said, shoving the picture of her brothers into her pocket. She grunted in pain as she took the few steps required to get out of her room but ignored the pain as she started running through the corridors up to the lab. "It's a scepter! A _scepter_! I'm running now to guard the _scepter_!" Kendra shouted as she sprinted past other sprinting agents.

"I don't need your input right now Agent Dagger! Just do as you're ordered!" Fury shouted back.

"Can do!" Kendra shouted back before disabling her comm link.

It took Kendra fifteen minutes to reach the lab. It would have taken her ten but other agents kept getting in her way and the quickest routes to the lab were either packed or too damaged to go through. She learned through shouted snippets that one of the engines had been blown up and they were slowly starting to fall out of the sky. Kendra cursed loudly, furiously, when she heard that. How the hell?!

The lab was completely deserted when Kendra reached it and so were the hallways around it. She was the only one there to watch the scepter, to keep it out of the hands of whoever was attacking the Helicarrier. Cause someone was definitely attacking the Helicarrier. Kendra frowned and looked around the room for the scepter. It was still lying on Bruce's workstation, untouched and unscathed. The gem in it was glowing brightly and that made Kendra's frown deepen, glowing blue gem was not a good thing in her head anymore.

"I fucking hate this thing." Kendra said, picking it up off the workstation with distaste.

"Then hand it to me mortal."

Kendra spun around quickly and brandished the scepter at Loki, her eyes burning with white hot rage. "Back off god boy or I'm gonna fucking stab you with your own scepter." She growled at him, pointing the tip right at his heart. Surprisingly she felt great holding the thing now. Her whole body was buzzing with adrenaline and she felt like she could blast Loki to bits. She actually could with this weapon, she could blast Loki into oblivion.

Loki smirked at her. "Are you? Why not just destroy me? You're capable of it now with my scepter in your hands." He told her, slowly walking forward. Kendra snarled and thrust forward with the scepter, telling him to get the hell back before she killed him. He stopped but didn't retreat. "You can feel it can't you? The power in your hands." He said, watching her with amusement.

"Damn right. I could kill you right now, it'd be easy." Kendra growled out, her grip on the scepter become tighter and almost possessive. Her thoughts were starting to get a little fuzzy but she ignored it, not wanting to take her focus off of Loki.

"Then do it. Use the gem, blow me away." Loki said almost mockingly.

Kendra considered it. She actually considered using the thing that had killed her fellow S.H.I.E.L.D agents and taken her brother from her to kill the monster before her. She even considered keeping it afterwards, thinking that she could accomplish so much if she replaced her knives with this scepter. Then she realized what she was thinking. Kendra took a step backwards and looked at her hands in fear. She'd been about to use it. Oh god she'd been about to use the thing that had screwed her brother's mind to hell. Kendra threw the scepter behind her and quickly unsheathed two of her knives, pointing them at Loki.

"No." Kendra said firmly, glaring at him. Loki's amusement had disappeared and he was now staring at her with a mostly blank look, his eyebrows raised up though as if he was at least slightly impressed. "I'm not a 'blast my enemies away' kind of person. I'm more of a 'I'll stab you all through the heart' kind of person." She told him, a small smirk appearing on her face.

Loki smirked at her. "I noticed. You tried to kill me with knives, remember?" He practically purred, stalking forward again.

Kendra growled slightly, he was an idiot for bringing up her first encounter with him. She stepped forward, crossing her knives so that they were in an x. She placed the x against Loki's throat and couldn't help being slightly pleased that she didn't have to stretch her arms to much to place them against his neck. "I almost did kill you. If you hadn't had your magic little force field around you my knives would have sunk straight into your flesh." She told him, sounding a tad smug about that fact. She smirked slightly up at his glare. "Oh and I don't suggest moving. Don't want to cut your throat by accident now do you?" She asked mockingly.

"Pathetic mortal, get out of my way." Loki growled at her. His eyes were cold and frightening, worse than any pair of eyes Kendra had ever had to look into which included Natasha's.

"Pathetic god, no." Kendra growled back.

Loki growled and suddenly his hands were latched around her wrists in grips tighter than iron bracelets. Kendra let out a small pain filled gasp before trying to slice the god's neck. Loki pushed against her though, slowly bringing the knives away from his throat. Kendra snarled and twisted to the side just enough to lift her leg and slam her knee into his side. Loki, surprisingly, stumbled to the side after the impact. Kendra took her chance and pulled her wrists out of his grip. She then took her leg, still in the air, and delivered a kick to the side of his face, sending him into Bruce's workstation.

"Don't fucking mess with a Barton." Kendra said smugly, smirking darkly at the god before her clutching at his face.

Loki chuckled darkly at that and straightened up, still clutching at his face. His lip was bleeding and Kendra grinned in triumph for a second, she'd made a god bleed. "Oh I'm not afraid of you Kendra." The god purred out. Kendra froze, her face draining of color. "Your brother told me all about you. He told me about your childhood, about your kills, about your _fears_." Loki said, slowly walking back to Kendra. She felt fear blossoming in her chest but she still managed to brandish her knives at him, though admittedly it was a little less threatening than before. "He told me of how you've always followed orders, even when you were supposedly free. You did not believe me when I told you freedom was a lie but you prove my point by existing, Kendra Barton." Loki told her, his voice now terrifyingly gentle. Kendra resisted the whimper building up in her throat as his chest brushed her knives. She pressed them against his chest, warning him to stop. He didn't. Kendra placed one of her knives against his throat but he continued to walk forward and she was forced to bend her arm so she wouldn't kill him. She couldn't kill him, he was the only one who could tell her where her brother was. "Your brother has betrayed you. He has given everything about you away where you have remained loyal to him. He has betrayed you and left you just like everyone else you've ever loved." Loki said, his voice so soft now that it was soothing. It was terrifying. Kendra wanted to scream.

"No he hasn't. Clint would be here if it wasn't for you." Kendra protested furiously, pressing her knife into his neck. Not enough to kill him of course, just enough to make him bleed.

Loki's hand darted out and latched around Kendra's throat. She gasped in surprise then started choking as Loki squeezed her throat and lifted her into the air. "I should kill you for your disobedience, for harming a god." Loki snarled at her. Kendra couldn't reply, having someone's hand wrapped around your throat kind of makes it hard to speak, but she did glare at him in a way that told him to go ahead and do it. She tried to cut him with her knives but she was starting to black out and her grip on her knives was slackening. Within a few seconds they clattered to the ground. "But I won't." Loki told her, his voice going back to gentle. "I'll let your brother do that." Kendra tried to glare at him but now her eyes were almost closed and she couldn't see him.

Loki threw Kendra into the corner of the room like she was nothing more than a rag doll. Her head slammed into the wall and she was instantly knocked unconscious. Loki smirked as he picked the scepter up off the grown and grinned wickedly when the gem glowed brightly. He started to leave the room but stopped halfway to the door, turning to look back at the Barton girl. Her brother had proven useful, perhaps she would too. Loki took a step towards her, preparing to press her scepter to her chest, but stopped when he heard the Hulk roaring not far beneath him. He frowned, he couldn't risk getting spotted by the Hulk and being hindered. Thor would be by his cage room sooner or later and he did not want to miss the chance to drop his brother out of the sky. So Loki turned and left the room, leaving the Barton girl behind.


	16. Humming

Humming. Who the hell was humming? Kendra's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion but she didn't open her eyes. She listened carefully. Yeah, someone was definitely humming. Were they...They were humming Single Ladies. Kendra felt like punching them. Single Ladies was a good song but not when her head was pounding viciously in pain. Kendra cracked an eye open and winced when her eye was instantly blinded by light. She groaned and closed her eye again.

The humming stopped for a second but then picked up again, this time louder than before. Kendra growled softly and forced her eyes open so that she could yell at whoever was humming. She had to blink a few million times to adjust her eyes to the light but once she did she looked around for the source of the humming. Her eyes found her brother. Her brother whose eyes were grey as ever, not blue. Clint smirked at her. "What Ken doll? You don't like my humming all of a sudden?" He asked her jokingly. Kendra bolted upright, her eyes wide in shock.

Seconds later Clint had his sister in his arms and her wrists trapped in one of his hands so she wouldn't punch him in the face. "I hate you. I hate you, I hate you, I _hate_ you." Kendra said, her face buried in his shoulder so he wouldn't see the tears in her eyes. She was so relieved. So relieved and so mad. "You're such an ass. You hurt me Clint! And you abandoned me! And you-!"

Clint shushed his sister loudly enough to silence her. "I know Ken, I know." He said gently, rocking her slightly. Kendra stopped trying to punch him and let him wrap both of his arms around her. "I'm so sorry sis. You know I would never have done that if I'd been in control of myself." Clint told his little sister, looking her in the eye so she knew he was lying.

"You didn't promise to come back." Kendra told him, her voice shaking with tears.

Clint started to wince but stopped himself before he did. He knew how much that must have hurt his sister and he hated it. He hated himself. He'd hurt her physically and he knew he had hurt her emotionally though she would never admit it to him. "I didn't mean to Kendra. I swear on my bow, I never wanted to do any of the things I did." Clint said. His need for her to believe him was in his voice and it surprised Kendra slightly. Did he think she wouldn't believe him?

Kendra headbutted her brother slightly, hitting her forehead against his cheek. It hurt her head but she didn't mind cause he smiled a little at her. "Are you okay big brother?" She asked him, worry prominent in her voice.

Clint shook his head, he wasn't going to lie to her. Intense worry appeared on Kendra's face but Clint gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine though little sister. I'm back and you're not dead so I'm going to be fine." He promised her.

"You better be, idiot." Kendra said sharply though she was smiling. Clint smiled back and she looked around the room, noticing it wasn't hers. "How did I end up in here?" She asked, confused.

"We carried you." Natasha said, suddenly emerging from the bathroom. Kendra jumped slightly, startled by the redhead's sudden appearance. "We found you in the lab, unconscious in the corner of the room. You're lucky you were all the way back there too, you wouldn't be alive right now if you had been anywhere else. Apparently Thor and the Hulk fought in there for a bit." The redhead told her. Kendra watched her carefully, noticing how off the Russian woman seemed. She actually sounded a little frightened when she mentioned the Hulk too and Kendra wondered what had happened.

"Okay so...what happened?" Kendra asked curiously, looking towards her brother.

"Tasha can tell you better than I can." Clint told her, pointing to the Russian woman.

Kendra shrugged and turned to look back at Natasha. "Well apparently you have the stage. So what happened? I'm guessing Clint blew up the Helicarrier." She said, shooting her brother a small smile.

Natasha nodded and sat down on a nearby chair. She started explaining what had happened in typical Natasha fashion by listing off events in an almost military fashion with a bit of Russian redhead sass thrown in. Clint escaped to the bathroom about halfway through and didn't come back out, even when Natasha had finished talking. When Kendra gave the other woman a questioning worrying look Natasha used sign language to tell her what her brother had said about his head, explaining that he was more than likely trying to clear his head and didn't want her to see him suffering. Kendra frowned deeply at that, worried for her brother.

"Are we in the infirmary?" Kendra asked after a few more minutes of silence, looking at the door's window with annoyance. Only the infirmary doors had overly large windows so anyone could peer inside to check on the injured. Kendra thought that was kind of creepy. What if someone woke up after blacking out and saw someone staring at them through the window? Kendra scrunched her nose up at the window, hating it.

"Yes, we are. You split your head open again." Natasha told her.

Kendra groaned obnoxiously. "Damn. How many of those am I going to get?" She asked no one in particular. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed deeply, feeling a wave of tired hitting her. "Well, that explains the headache. Fuck." She grumbled.

"Stop cussing." Clint said through the door. Kendra smirked in response.

The infirmary door suddenly opened and in came Steve, his expression dead serious. "Time to go." He told them, looking more at Natasha than Kendra.

Natasha's eyebrows scrunched together slightly. "Go where?" She asked.

"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?" Steve asked.

Clint opened the bathroom door and came walking out, a towel in his hands and a serious expression on his face. "I can." He told the Captain. Kendra decided not to point out that she could too just in case the Captain decided to not let Clint go with them.

Steve looked over to Natasha and gave her a look that asked if she thought it was a good idea, having Clint fly the jet. Natasha nodded slightly, confirming that Clint was going to be flying the jet. Steve nodded back and turned to Clint. "You got a suit?" He asked. Clint nodded and mumbled something that could have been a "yeah." Steve nodded again. "Then suit up." He said before walking out of the room.

"That was an awful lot of nodding." Kendra said, staring at the door though it had already closed again and she couldn't see the Captain anymore. She clucked her tongue once before standing up, stretching out her aching back. "Well, we better get ready. We can't keep the good Captain waiting." She said, joking a little.

"You're going?" Clint asked, sounding somewhere between disapproving and confused.

Kendra smirked darkly. "I'm not gonna miss a chance to kick Loki's ass." She told him, sounding more than eager to get into a fight.

Clint wanted to tell her no, to stay so she wouldn't get hurt, but knew she wouldn't listen to him. She wouldn't want him away from her again after just getting him back. Not to mention she seemed to want Loki dead just as much as he did. "Watch your mouth." Clint finally said. Kendra stuck her tongue out at him childishly before taking off towards her room to suit up.


	17. Welcome to New York

Kendra frowned, adjusting the various parts of her uniform. She had on large black boots, easy to move in pants, a simple sleeveless shirt, and a long sleeved jacket. There was a knife in each of her boots, a contraption on her wrist that would shoot out her specially made darts, and a gun holstered to her thigh. Her throwing stars were in pockets on her jacket and a few explosive ones were strapped to the inside of a tear away pocket on her jacket. Her throwing knives were strapped to various parts of her body. She was ready for action.

"You're gonna lose so many of those." Clint said from the pilot's seat.

"Not if I'm careful. Besides, I'm fine with losing the darts and the throwing stars, those aren't meant to be recovered." Kendra told him, smiling pleasantly as she checked to make sure her throwing knives were secure.. "The knives, even the throwing ones, are for close range fighting. The bullets I could care less about." She stated.

"Guns are the best." Natasha said, deadpanned. Clint smirked at the redhead, finding her serious way of joking pretty funny.

Kendra chuckled and shook her head. "No way, Agent Romanoff." She told the redhead who smiled slightly. "Guns are for show. Knives are for pros." Kendra said, sounding smug.

Clint paused for a second then twisted around just enough in the pilot's seat so that he could look at his sister and still see the sky ahead. "Ken doll, did you just quote from Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels?" He asked, smiling slightly with amusement. Kendra nodded and he laughed. "When did you watch that again? Last time I remember us watching that movie was months ago." He asked.

"I memorized the quote, bro. It was too perfect to forget." Kendra informed him, grinning. Clint shook his head and turned back around in his seat so he was looking fully at the sky. Good thing too because they had just reached Manhattan. Kendra's jaw dropped as she stared out at the city. There was a great big hole in the sky above Stark Tower and weird looking aliens on chariots were flying around blasting everything in sight. "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills." Kendra mumbled out as they flew towards the Tower.

"Zoolander." Clint said as he maneuvered the jet. Kendra nodded, confirming that he'd gotten the source right. "Call Stark, tell him we're here." Clint ordered no one in particular.

Natasha immediately did as he said, patching through to Tony's helmet. "Stark, we're heading North East." Natasha said the second Tony's face showed up on the jet's monitor.

"What, did you stop for drive thru?" Tony asked, sounding thoroughly annoyed. Kendra couldn't blame him in the least. "Swing up Park, I'm gonna lay them out for you." He told them.

Clint immediately did as Tony instructed, steering the jet towards Park, and Natasha dropped the machine gun in preperation. Kendra was impressed by the fact that the jet fit perfectly between the massive buildings in the city and wondered if this was what life with flying cards would be like. She didn't get to wonder about it long though as Tony flew by them, a massive group of alien chariots flying right behind him. Natasha immediately fired at the chariots, blowing up most of them but not all of them. Kendra cursed then screamed in surprise as Clint suddenly steered the jet upwards. She fell backwards, running straight into Captain America who had smartly been holding onto the wall to keep him standing. He wrapped his free arm around her and kept her from falling until she was holding onto the wall.

"I suggest sitting down and buckling up. Kendra, no protesting." Clint said as he flew upwards around the Tower.

"Not like I can protest with Captain Rogers giving me an authoritative look till I do as you say." Kendra said with a roll of her eyes, sitting down in one of the seats. She immediately buckled up, making sure she was completely secured into the seat. She did _not_ want to be thrown about the jet any more.

A few moments later, Kendra had no clue what happened, they were crashing. Kendra didn't scream, braver when she was possibly going to die than she was when she was about to fall on her butt. She did curse though when the jet slammed into the ground, her body being thrown painfully against the straps holding her in her seat. Clint shot her an almost murderous look for cussing as the jet slowly stopped. Kendra stuck her tongue out at him when he wasn't looking.

"What the hell happened?" Kendra asked as she unstrapped herself from her seat.

"Loki blasted us from the sky." Clint said furiously, getting up out of his seat. Kendra did a quick sweep of his condition and was glad to see he wasn't scraped up or anything. Unscathed and angry, a good way to enter a battle. "And watch your mouth." Clint added, hitting the button to open up the jets backend. Kendra smirked and turned towards the back of the jet as it opened up. Clint frowned slightly, his sister had just about been killed and they hadn't even gotten into the real fighting yet. He was going to have to keep an extremely close eye on her throughout the battle, he didn't know what he would do if he lost his baby sister.

Captain Rogers, of course, led the way out of the jet with his shield strapped to his arm. He started running down a street and the three assassins followed after him, Kendra between her brother and Natasha. "We have to get back up there!" Steve told them as they ran. None of them replied, too busy trying to figure out a way to do as he said.

The four of them were just a few blocks away from Stark Tower when something startled them to a stop. It was a deep primal roar that reminded Kendra of the Hulk's. They looked up at the portal, the source of the sound, and watched as something huge seemed to come swimming out of the humongous hole in the sky. "Holy shit." Kendra whispered, voicing what they were all thinking as they watched the thing. It came flying down towards them and as it got closer Kendra decided it looked something like a gigantic mechanical slug whale. It's teeth were humongous, bigger than a full grown man. Kendra shuddered slightly as it flew above them then groaned when alien reptiles, Chitarui if Thor was to be believed, flew off of the space whale's sides. They landed on the sides of nearby buildings or flew straight through windows, straight into buildings filled with innocent civilians. "Oh shit." Kendra whispered, a wave of despair hitting her for a second.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked through the comm link. Kendra remembered the earpiece her brother had tossed to her when they first got on the jet and quickly turned it on, linking herself to the conversation.

"Seeing. Still working on believing." Tony replied. He sounded a bit fazed by the space whale and Kendra really couldn't blame him, the thing was freaky with a capital F. "Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?" Tony asked.

"Banner?" Steve asked, confused.

"Just keep me posted." Tony told them.

Kendra looked around at the Chitauri sliding down the buildings towards the ground. "Keep you posted. Yeah, that might be a bit difficult." She said, not actually answering Tony but more or less just speaking to herself. She clicked a few buttons on her dart shooter, selecting a specific dart she'd been dying to test out. "This is going to be fun." She said, trying to joke but sounding almost solemn. Clint nodded and opened his mouth to reply but before he could several of the Chitauri leaped down off the sides of the buildings and landed in the street in front of them. Steve motioned for them to get down and they all instantly found vehicles to duck behind. The assassins immediately did as they were told but Steve didn't follow his own orders. He ran off, heading towards the buildings and vehicles around them. "What the hell is he doing?" Kendra asked, trying to catch a glimpse of the Captain without moving too much.

Natasha craned her neck a bit to see him. "Checking for civilians I think." She answered without turning to look at Kendra.

"Shouldn't _we_ be doing that?" Kendra grumbled out, glancing back towards where all the civilians had been running to.

Neither of the others replied and Kendra didn't press the matter. Steve came running back less than five minutes later and he kneeled down in front of them. "We've got civilians trapped in-." Steve stopped when he heard explosions overheard. They all looked up in time to see Loki fly overheard, blasting at things as he went. "Loki." Steve mumbled out as he stood up, sounding far from pleased. "They're fish in a barrel down there." He said angrily.

Before any of them could reply one of the Chitauri shot at Steve, nearly hitting him in the head with a blast of blue energy. Natasha shot to her feet, pulling out the guns attatched to her thighs, and immediately started firing at the Chitauri. The two Bartons moved without thinking, ducking behind a different vehicle while Natasha was firing. Two more Chitauri leapt down and landed on a car, crushing it. Kendra frowned at them and started formulating a plan to avoid any or all close range fighting. They could probably crush her easily.

"You think you can hold them off?" Steve asked, catching the attention of the two Bartons who were still deadly focused on the aliens.

The two Bartons turned to look at him. "Captain." Clint smirked and pressed a button on his bow, sending a message to his quiver that immediately selected a specific arrow for him to use. "It would be our genuine pleasure." The older Barton said. The younger grinned wickedly and nodded, ready for a fight. Steve nodded slightly and without another word the two Bartons shot to their feet, readying their weapons. Clint fired his arrow straight into a Chitauri's forehead and it activated, shooting three other Chitauri around it. Kendra reached up and pressed the fire button on her dart shooter. Immediately a dart shot out faster than a bullet. It broke apart in mid air becoming much smaller missiles. They pierced into the heads and torsos of five Chitauri soldiers, dropping three of them to the ground. Kendra grinned. Miniature missile dart, awesome.

"We're awesome." Kendra said cheerfully, grinning away.

"Just a bit." Clint replied, pulling out another arrow.

Natasha shot to her feet and started firing at the Chitauri. Kendra glanced back just in time to see the Captain leap off the side of the bridge and land on a bus. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise and she would have stared after him a little longer if a Chitauri hadn't shot at her. She spun back around and fired off three darts one after the other. They each went straight through a Chitauri soldier's head. Kendra looked at them a little ruefully, it would be difficult getting to those so she could use them again.

Clint fired another arrow before nudging his sister with his boot. "Don't run out of ammo or I swear I'll kill you." He told her before going back to the fight.

Kendra frowned and fired off another dart. "Yeah, sure bro." She mumbled out, worried now that she would run out of ammo.


	18. Fighting

"Kendra! Help me out!" Clint shouted. Kendra glanced back over her shoulder and saw her brother standing by a bus filled with people. She hadn't even noticed him move from her side.

Kendra raced to her brother's side and immediately started helping people out of the bus's windows. She couldn't lift the adults down of course but she could at least help them slightly, grab their arms and help pull them out of the bus. Someone passed her a little girl and she quickly lowered her to the ground, whispering that everything was going to be okay to the crying girl. The mother came out next and picked up the girl immediately. Kendra pointed towards a relatively safe area, silently telling them to run. They did. Immediately.

"Front of the bus Clint! Doors are stuck!" Kendra shouted when she noticed people banging on the doors' windows. Clint nodded, checked to make sure the back of the bus was empty, then raced to join her at the front of the bus. It took a bit but they managed to yank the doors apart. Civilians instantly ran out of the bus and towards the nearby buildings they had pointed out to the others, avoiding the Chitauri blasts as they did. Kendra watched them as they ran, worried for them, but quickly turned her attention back to the fighting. "I wish I had some music!" Kendra shouted to her brother as they ran back to Natasha.

"You wouldn't be able to hear it over this!" Clint shouted back.

"Just like Budapest all over again!" Natasha shouted once they were back beside her.

Clint didn't even look over at her. "You and I remember Budapest very differently." He answered, firing off two arrows at top speed.

Kendra smirked at their exchange and leapt over the vehicle they were standing behind. She slid across the hood and landed behind another vehicle before she could be blasted by any of the Chitauri. She pulled out her pistol and fired a few shots at the aliens, making headshots each time. She needed to get her darts back and Clint needed to retrieve his arrows. They'd run out of ammo soon if they didn't. She ducked back down and turned to face her brother. "Clint! Retrieve!" She shouted at him. Clint nodded and leapt over the car in a swift fluid motion, somehow managing to fire off an arrow as he did. Natasha followed him over without question and soon they were running out among the aliens, taking down one after the other as the two Bartons retrieved their weapons.

A Chitauri rushed at Kendra, it's weapon held up ready to blast her. In one fluid motion she kicked the gun looking thing out of its hands, sending it skittering across the ground. The Chitauri growled at her and rushed to attack her but she dropped down out of its reach. She pulled one of her knives out of her boots and shot back up, shoving the blade into the Chitauri's chin. It squelched and then went slack, dead. Kendra yanked her knife out of it's grow flesh and kicked it away, disgusted. She smirked a little smugly though and rushed over to a nearby Chitauri with one of her darts embedded in its head. She yanked it out and placed it back in her shooter, locking it into position before getting back up. As she stood she spotted her brother getting tackled to the ground by a Chitauri.

"Dammit Clint." Kendra mumbled, running over to her brother. The second she reached them she landed a kick to the Chiaturi's side and stomach, stunning it long enough for her brother to pull out an arrow and stab it in the chest. "Don't get killed!" Kendra shouted at her brother, kicking the now dead alien off of her brother.

"Same to you!" Clint shouted back to her, getting to his feet.

A Chitauri blast missed them by half a foot and they took off running, knowing to stay still would probably get them killed. Clint went one way while Kendra went the other, aiming for another one of her darts. She slashed the throat of a Chitauri soldier as she passed it and wiped out her gun while sliding across the ground so she could shoot two others. The second she had her darts all back in place she ran back to her brother who somehow now had both Natasha and Captain America back with him. Kendra pressed another button on her dart shooter, which she was starting to consider naming Sniper for how accurately it fired, and selected another one of the missile darts. She aimed at a Chitauri but before she could fire lightning rained down from the sky, frying the last three. Seconds later Thor landed down in front of them looking a tad haggard.

"Hey buddy, good to see you." Kendra said jokingly, swiping one of her brother's arrows out of a Chitauri's chest. She handed it over to him and he took it graciously, crinkling his nose slightly at the Chitauri blood on it.

Thor nodded to her but didn't reply. "What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked the god, walking over to him. Clint walked past both of them, heading for another one of his arrows. Kendra followed him, her eyes searching the streets and nearby buildings for anymore Chitauri.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable." Thor told the Captain.

"Thor's right." Tony said over the comm link. Luckily he was just loud enough for Thor to hear so no one had to relay the message. "We've got to deal with these guys." He said. His words were immediately followed by a nearby explosion that could have only have come from him.

Kendra bit her lip and stared up at the portal, wondering exactly how many Chitauri there were. There was a chance they'd be able to kill all of them. It was a very slim chance but it could still happen. "How do we do this?" Natasha asked, looking towards Steve.

"As a team." Steve answered immediately, sounding like the natural born leader Phil always claimed the super soldier was.

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor told the super soldier.

"Yeah?" Clint said, catching the god's attention. "Well get in line." He said, wiping Chitauri blood off of one of his arrows.

Kendra nodded and readjusted her jacket, annoyed by the slight slip off her shoulder if had done. "We all have a reason to take a swing at Loki, Thor. You can have him when the rest of us are done." Kendra said, a small glare on her face.

"Save it." Steve told them sternly. The Bartons didn't reply but exchanged looks that said they'd try their best to get to Loki and punch him in the face. "Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, he's gonna need us to-." Steve suddenly stopped talking when he heard the sounds of a motorbike approaching them. Everyone turned, confused, and spotted Bruce driving through the wreckage on a silver motorbike.

"Hey, you made it!" Kendra said cheerfully as they all walked over to him.

"Yes, I made it." Bruce said, getting off the motorbike. He gave her a small smile before looking around at the wreckage. "And this all seems horrible." He added.

"I've seen worse." Natasha said, eyeing the doctor a little warily. Kendra looked over at her friend, careful to keep her concern off of her face. Natasha had been extremely brief in her description of her "fight" with the Hulk but she had said enough for Kendra to know the redhead had been completely terrified.

Bruce looked at her apologetically. "Sorry." He said sincerely.

Natasha shook her head slightly. "No we could use a little worse." She told him. Bruce nodded a bit at that. Kendra frowned, was Bruce actually going to help them out? That's why he had come right?

"Stark, we got him." Steve informed the billionaire.

"Banner?" Tony asked.

Steve looked over at Bruce. "Just like you said." The super soldier replied.

"Then tell him to suit up." Tony said, sounding like he had no doubt that Bruce would help them. "I'm bringing the party to you."

Not five seconds later Tony came flying around the corner...followed by the space whale that took out a whole section of a building as it followed him. Kendra's jaw dropped at the sight, he wasn't serious. No way. No. No, no, no, no, no. NO. "I don't see how that's a party." Natasha said, staring up at the space whale with the same slightly frightened look Kendra was giving it.

Kendra walked around to her brother's left side, her stomach twisting in knots. "I swear Stark if we die because of you I will find you in the afterlife and double kill you." She told the billionaire through the comm link.

"Duly noted." Tony said as he flew, trying to stay ahead of the space whale behind him.

"Doctor Banner." Steve said, snapping Kendra's attention away from the space whale for a second. Bruce was walking towards the whale, looking determind. "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry." The super soldier informed him.

Bruce turned slightly as he walked so they could all see his face. "That's my secret Captain." He said, glancing back at the space whale. He stopped and turned to look back at them all. "I'm always angry."

Kendra's jaw dropped as Bruce turned. His whole body seemed to swell up, muscles replacing the slightly lean build of Doctor Banner. His skin went from tan to green in seconds flat. His clothes ripped as his body expanded, his shirt falling away in tatters. Within seconds Doctor Banner went from a normal sized slightly twitchy scientist to a massive, intimidating, green rage monster capable of ripping apart tanks. Or, in this case, punching a space whale right in the face.

The space whale's tail came flying upwards, moving still though it's face had been stopped by the Hulk's fist. It started crashing down towards them and Kendra stared up at it, wide eyed with horror. Then Tony fired an explosive at the space whale's gross flesh. Clint acted fast and pulled his sister over to the side of a car. He pulled her down and crouched down in front of her, hovering slightly over her. The explosive went off and the following boom made Kendra wince. Fire and space whale meat rained down on them as the tail suddenly changed direction and fell over the side of the bridge. Kendra sighed in relief as the fire retracted, they hadn't been crushed by a giant alien tail and they hadn't been set on fire. Today was starting to seem like a good day.

"That was awesome!" Kendra shouted as Clint helped her to her feet. He didn't reply, just smiled. That smile turned into a grim line though when suddenly the Chitauri around them roared loudly, furiously. Kendra grinned though as their roars were drowned out by the Hulk's. The big guy was louder than a whole army of aliens. It was amazing. Kendra raised up Sniper and pointed it in the direction of the Chitauri, wondering how many she could kill if she fired off another missile dart.

"Guys." Natasha said, catching their attention. Kendra looked over at her then slowly followed her eyes up to the portal. She frowned furiously at the sight of two more space whales and another whole army of Chitauri flying down out of the portal.

"Call it Captain." Tony said, giving the soldier permission to give the orders.

Steve nodded slightly. "Alright listen up." He told them, taking a few steps forward so that he'd be at the front of the group. He turned his back on the portal and looked at his team. "Until we can close the portal up there we're gonna use containment. Barton I want you on that roof," he pointed up to a nearby roof, "eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out you turn it back or turn it to ash." Steve ordered them.

"What about her?" Clint asked, nodding towards his sister. He didn't want to leave her alone during the fight. She wasn't superhuman like the Captain or the Hulk and she certainly wasn't a god. She didn't even have a suit of armor. One wrong move and she'd be dead. He wanted her near him so he could protect her.

Steve eyed Clint cautiously. "She'll stay here on the ground with me." He said.

"No. I want her with me." Clint said firmly.

"This is not the right moment to be getting protective Clint. We've kind of got an army on our hands." Kendra said, sounding annoyed. Truthfully, she didn't want to be very far from her brother either simply so _she_ could keep _him _alive but she knew that wasn't going to happen. She was an on the ground fighter, a foot soldier kind of. Her weapons could only fly so far and half of them couldn't fly as far as the other half. It was best if she stayed on the ground.

"I'll keep an eye on her Agent Barton. Nothing will happen to her." Steve said, interrupting what would have surely become a very vicious argument.

Clint frowned and stared at the Captain, trying to judge if he could trust the super soldier with his sister's life. There were really only two people he trusted with her, Natasha and Coulson, and even them he doubted. But then he caught sight of Natasha signing to him to let the Captain watch after Kendra and he knew he wasn't going to win if he argued. "No offense Captain but if my sister dies I'm going to kill you." Clint said, staring the Captain dead in the eye. Kendra hit her brother's arm sharply and frowned but Steve didn't even frown. He just nodded solemnly, taking Clint's words very seriously. Clint glanced at his sister then turned to Tony. "Wanna give me a lift?" He asked the genius.

Tony nodded and walked over. "Better clench up Legolas." He said, grabbing the archer by the back of the shirt. Kendra snorted at the nickname for her brother and watched as Tony flew him up to the building's roof.

"Thor, you got to try and bottleneck that portal." Steve said, going back to ordering them around now that the Bartons weren't arguing. Thor nodded and looked up towards the portal again. "Slow them down. You've got the lightning. Light the bastards up." He said. Thor started spinning Mjolnir and seconds later he was flying towards the Empire State Building, something that actually kind of scared Kendra a little as she thought about the damage he could do to the poor building. Steve turned to Natasha. "You'll stay here on the ground with me and Agent Dagger. We stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here." He told her. Natasha nodded, accepting the order. Steve turned to Hulk. "And Hulk," the big green monster turned with a grunt, "smash." The Hulk grinned.

Kendra watched as the Hulk leapt up onto the side of the nearest building and started freaking demolishing the Chitauri soldiers, impressed as hell. "He is awesome." She said, laughing a little in exhilaration.

Natasha shook her head. "Don't tell Bruce that when he's back to normal. He might not like it." She said, smiling slightly.

Kendra grinned back and readied Sniper as Chitauri soldiers appeared in the street again. _"Don't tell me not to fly, I simply got to. If someone takes a spill it's me and not you. Who said you're allowed to rain on my parade?" _Kendra sang out, watching her approaching enemies.

"Stop bursting into song. This is not a Disney movie." Clint said through the comm link. Kendra grinned when she heard her brother humming the next part of the song.


	19. Brief Bonding Moment with the Cap

Kendra threw her knives straight into a Chitauri's eye sockets, killing it instantly. She ran up to it and yanked her knives back out as quickly as she could. She turned just in time to see a Chitauri soldier point his weapon at her. She ducked as he fired then rushed forward and stabbed him in the gut with her left knife. Straightening up, Kendra slammed her right handed knife into the Chitauri's face. She pulled her knife out of its gut, twisted so that she was standing sideways, and elbowed the Chitauri off of her other knife. It fell to the ground and she stumbled backwards, feeling exhausted. Her whole body ached from being slammed into the ground by a Chitauri soldier and she was cut up pretty badly. It had quickly become a close range fight when the Chitauri realized that she fought better at a distance and it hadn't gone too well for her. She could take down men bigger than her but apparently she wasn't so good at taking down alien life forms covered in armor that were bigger than her.

"Kendra!" Natasha shouted, catching the girl's attention. Kendra looked over and saw the redhead waving her over. Captain Rogers was with her and they both looked as exhausted as Kendra felt. The girl nodded and quickly jogged over, her legs aching in pain as she did. Natasha waited till Kendra was over before turning to Steve. "Captain, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal." The redhead pointed out.

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it." Steve said, referring to Tony and Thor.

"Well maybe it's not about guns." Natasha said, her eyes focused on the portal and the Chitauri pouring out of it. Kendra stared up at the increasing number of chariots, feeling a brick wall made of fatigue hit her. If she lived through this she was going to sleep forever.

Chitauri appeared in the road again and Kendra groaned a bit, pushing herself off of the car she'd leaned against the second she reached Natasha and Steve. She pressed a button on Sniper, selecting another missile dart. She pulled down the Velcro tear away pocket on her jacket, revealing the explosive throwing stars she'd yet to use. She grabbed one and held it experimentally in her fingers. All she had to do was press the button in the center and the dagger parts would shoot out. Then she had fifteen seconds before it blew up. Kendra let her thumb hover over the button for a second before she reattached the pocket to her jacket.

"You wanna get up there you're gonna need a ride." Steve told the Black Widow.

Natasha looked up at the Chitauri chariots flying right above them. "I've got a ride." She said, walking across the bridge to the other side. Kendra gave the Russian woman a shocked look. She wasn't...was she? "I could use a boost though." Natasha said. Kendra's jaw dropped, she was actually going to do it.

Steve looked up at the chariots, holding his shield half at the ready. "You sure about this?" He asked, looking back at Natasha.

"Yeah, it's gonna be fun." Natasha said though she sounded a little nervous.

"Don't die Tasha." Kendra ordered the Russian who simply nodded. Natasha ran at Steve and leapt into the air just a few feet from him. She kicked her feet out, landing on his shield. He pushed upwards, throwing her into the air and into the direct line of the chariots. Kendra held her breath until the redhead grabbed the back of a chariot and was flying away, holding tightly onto it's end. "She's awesome. Insane but awesome." Kendra said, smiling a little.

"Agreed." Steve said, nodding curtly.

Kendra smiled but didn't get to reply as the Chitauri on the ground started firing at them. She frowned and pressed the button on her explosive throwing star. It expanded and she threw it, somehow managing to hit a Chitauri straight in the chest. Kendra counted down to zero and watched as the throwing star blew up, killing five different Chitauri soldiers in one blast. She grinned, pulled out her pistol, and started firing. She hummed Last Friday Night as she did.

Five seconds later her and the Captain were surrounded as the new batch of aliens discovered her difficulties with close range fighting. Kendra growled her leg screamed in pain when she had to kick a Chitauri away from her. She spun and returned her foot to the ground just in time to get a Chitauri weapon slammed into her face. Kendra fell to the ground but got up immediately, spitting blood. She fired Sniper without looking and nearly sighed in relief when she heard the sickening sound of her dart flying straight through the Chitauri's head. She did grin though when she caught a glimpse of it embedding itself into the eye of a Chitauri behind the one that attacked her.

"Dagger! Drop!" Tony suddenly shouted at her. Kendra did as he told her without question and just in time too as a long burning line of energy swept by, killing off several Chitauri soldiers. Kendra glanced over and saw Tony and Steve using their weapons to create a freaking beam of death. She smiled until she saw a Chitauri sneaking up on Tony's back. She quickly reached into her boot and threw her knife at the alien. The knife sunk hilt deep into the Chitauri's side and it immediately stopped approaching Tony so it could pull the knife out of its body. Tony spun around, saw Kendra's knife in it's hand, and blasted it backwards. Kendra's knife clattered to the ground where it once stood. "Thanks short stuff!" Tony told her before taking off into the air.

"I'm your height jerk face!" Kendra shouted after him though she was smiling slightly. She scrambled to her feet and ran over to her knife. She swiped it up, tucked it back into her boot, then placed herself at Steve's side. "You okay Cap?" She asked him, pulling her pistol back out now that the Chitauri were at least ten feet from her.

"Could be better!" Steve said, the corner of his lip twitching up for just a second before he focused on fighting again.

Kendra fired repeatedly at the Chitauri shooting at them, hitting each one but only killing about four of them. She was exhausted and though she could throw a knife with perfect precision when she was about to keel over she couldn't shoot and always hit her target. She'd never been as good with guns as with her knives. Kendra's pistol ran out of ammo for the second time since the team had put Steve's orders into action. Kendra cursed and released the magazine, letting it clatter to the ground. She tried to place another completely loaded magazine in but before she could a Chitauri shoved her to the ground as it rushed at Steve. She landed on the sharp edge of a Chitauri weapon, cutting open her arm. She hissed in pain and quickly got up, swiping her gun and the magazine back up off the ground she'd accidentally dropped them on. Kendra practically slammed the magazine into her pistol and spun around to shoot the Chitauri that had shoved her down. Steve had already dealt with it though. She huffed and looked down at her arm. Her jacket was torn wide open and there was a huge gash on her bicep. It was bleeding profusely which meant either an artery had been hit or it was deep. Kendra frowned at it, ripped off the lower half of her jacket sleeve, and one handedly tied it around the wound. Luckily none of her throwing knives were attached to that sleeve anymore, the ones that had been were buried in Chitauri bodies around her.

"Your brother is going to kill me." Steve muttered, eyeing the makeshift bandage.

"I'll stop him before he tries, promise." Kendra said, smiling weakly at the soldier.

"Captain." Clint suddenly said through the comm link. Kendra looked up at her brother up on the room. He was just a speck really from all the way down on the ground but she could still see him. "The bank on forty second past Madison, they caught a lot of civilians there." Clint said.

"I'm on it." Steve told the archer. He turned to Kendra who was yanking a dart out of a Chitauri and putting it back in Sniper. "Come on." He told her, gesturing for her to follow.

Kendra shook her head, looking back over at another group of Chitauri coming towards them. "I take your fucking bullets." She muttered under her breath as she watched them, quoting Scarface. "We've got to keep the fighting here Captain. You take care of the civilians, I'll stay here and keep them busy." Kendra told the super soldier. Steve opened his mouth to protest but Kendra cut him off. "No time to argue Rogers!" She snapped at him, pulling out two more explosive throwing stars. "Go! I'll be fine!" She told him, her voice hardened so that she'd sound brave despite the fact that she was terrified. She could barely handle the Chitauri with Steve at her back, fighting them alone would be harder than hell.

Steve grabbed her shoulder and squeezed it. "Be careful." He ordered her, his tone surprisingly gentle.

Kendra looked up at him and nodded. "I'll try Steve." She told him, using his first name so he knew she was being sincere. Steve nodded and squeezed her shoulder one last time before running off, leaving her to fight off a crowd of Chitauri soldiers on her own.


	20. Reason to Hate Aliens

Kendra managed to take out the whole group with the two throwing stars but the next group landed closer and she didn't have enough time to blow them all up before they got too close for explosives. She fired bullets into their brains but it seemed like every time she shot one down another would take its place. She managed to wrestle one of the spear like weapons from one of them and started hitting them repeatedly with it, stabbing as many as she could and knocking aside the ones that got too close. She got distracted though when she heard an explosion above her and saw the part of the roof her brother had been on enveloped in fire. Kendra screamed for her brother and as she did a Chitauri knocked her off her feet, sending her to the ground. She caught a glimpse of her brother crashing through a window into the building he'd been on as she fell and it made her sigh in relief...that is until a Chitauri spear came hurtling down towards her face.

The girl managed to roll onto her side just in time. The spear stabbed the concrete, missing the back of her head by just a centimeter. Kendra kicked out and managed to land a blow to the Chitauri's leg, sending it crashing to the ground. She leapt to her feet, picked the spear she'd dropped back up off the ground, and stabbed it straight through the Chitauri's head. "Clint! Clint I need help!" Kendra shouted as she realized there were more and more Chitauri closing in on her. "Clint!" Kendra shouted again as she found her gun on the ground and started firing at approaching Chitauri again.

"I'm on my way! Just stay alive till I get there!" Clint told her. He sounded like he was running. He _was_ running, running down the stairs to the building he was in as quickly as he could.

Kendra screamed in frustration as she ran out of bullets again. She dropped her pistol and started firing with Sniper, not caring what type of dart she fired out so long as it killed some Chitauri. They were slowly closing in one her, slowly pushing her towards the edge of the bridge. Kendra wanted to scream as she felt the bridge scrap lightly against her back. She hated being trapped, hated being cornered. She wanted to glance back and see how far the drop was but she couldn't with the Chitauri closing in. She was definitely going to die.

"I can close it. Can anybody hear me? I can shut the portal down." Natasha said through the comm link. The words hit Kendra and she felt actual tears of joy slip down her face as she fired dart after dart into the Chitauri throng trying to kill her. She ducked, avoiding a blast from one of their weapons.

"Do it!" Steve ordered.

"No wait!" Tony said quickly.

"Stark those things are still coming!" Steve replied.

Kendra screamed as a blast from a Chitauri weapon grazed her leg. It was like getting grazed by a bullet but worse since the part of the blast that did hit her seem to shoot through her body for a second in a moment of agonizing pain. "Please! Please close it!" Kendra practically cried out.

"I can't!" Tony told her. "I got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it." He explained.

Kendra realized what he meant and went to protest, not wanting him to sacrifice his life, but never got to say anything. A Chitauri soldier rushed at her and grabbed her by the throat. Kendra tried to scream but as she did it started squeezing with a strength strong enough to break the bones in her neck. She started to panic, kicking wildly at it as it seemed to sneer up at her. She was going to die. Clint wasn't going to get there in time. She was going to die and it was going to be at the hands of a freaking alien. Kendra clawed at the Chitaur's hand, having dropped the spear the second it grabbed her throat. Her clawing didn't work though. The Chitauri just squeezed harder and the other aliens watched with pleasure as she moved her mouth like a fish gasping for air. Kendra's vision nearly went completely black when Clint seemed to come out of nowhere and stabbed the Chitauri through the head with a spear.

Clint watched his sister drop to the ground as the Chitauri did but he didn't go to her, knowing he had to get rid of the Chitauri around them before he could. He yanked the spear out of the Chitauri's head and swung it at the remaining aliens. A minute later the spear was embedded in a Chitauri soldier's chest and Clint's bow was covered in alien blood. He stood still for a minute, looking at the dead aliens and breathing heavily, before remembering his sister. He turned and instantly kneeled down in front of his sister who was trying her hardest to regain a normal breathing pattern.

"Kendra? Kendra are you okay?" Clint asked, unmasked worry in his voice. "Come on Ken doll, answer me. Is anything broken?" He asked her, gently reaching up to touch her throat. She whimpered slightly and Clint pulled back quickly.

"Neck. Raw." Kendra replied though it hurt like hell.

Clint ran a hand over his face, a clear sign of stress. "God, Kendra, I'm so sorry. I should have stayed down here with you. I'm so sorry. Dammit, I'm sorry." He said earnestly, staring at her with a mix of pain and self loathing. Kendra didn't say anything, just patted the ground beside her. Clint followed her silent order and sat down beside her. He leaned his head against the wall that normally kept cars from falling off the bridge, too tired to keep it up on its own. "You should have gone with the Captain." He told her.

Kendra leaned her head against her brother's shoulder and looked up at the portal. "I know." She mumbled out as she watched Tony Stark fly through the portal with a nuke on his back. She smiled slightly though it was sad, the billionaire was proving to the entire world once and for all that he was a hero.


End file.
